Terming money laundering as a menace causing irreparable loss to the country’s economy, Prime Minister Imran Khan remarked that elements involved in it did not deserve any concession, so they should be unmasked and their true faces be exposed before the masses.
The prime minister shared these views while addressing a high-level meeting to discuss the steps being taken to effectively check money-laundering. The perceived successes achieved so far as a result of those measures were also discussed in the meeting.
Participants of the meeting included the Minister for Finance Asad Umar, Special Assistant to PM Shehzad Akbar, Special Assistant to PM Iftikhar Durrani, Governor State Bank Tariq Bajwa, Secretary Interior, Chairman Federal Board Revenue (FBR), Chairman Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), Director General Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and other senior officials.
The Governor of State Bank briefed the meeting about measures taken across the country to check money-laundering.
Participants of the meeting informed the Prime Minister about fake bank accounts and that six different banks had so far been fined Rs 247 million. Meanwhile, an investigation against 109 officers was underway. It was also mentioned that hurdles in the way of letting Afghan refugees in Pakistan to open bank accounts were being removed. It was mentioned that the work to provide the facility of opening bank accounts on the basis of POR (Proof of Registration) Card issued by the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) was in progress. The Prime Minister was also briefed in detail about the issuance of suspicious transactions’ reports and the review and investigation of these reports by the Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU).
The prime minister was informed that First Information Reports (FIRs) were registered and 13 people were arrested in 11 cases of confiscation of currency worth Rs 305.06 million from November 2018 to January 2019. The premier was briefed that the inflow of foreign remittances had witnessed 12.5 percent increase, giving the credit to incentives introduced by the government. The Secretary Interior briefed the Prime Minister in detail about the measures being taken at borders and various airports to check money-laundering. The Prime Minister on this occasion directed to make the FMU more effective and further strengthen it.
New local government bodies for welfare of masses
While speaking to Members of the National Assembly (MNAs) belonging to Multan division, the premier announced that the government would introduce such a system under which local bodies’ representatives would be empowered and be answerable to the people.
Ministers for Foreign Affairs Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Syed Fakhar Imam, Zahoor Hussain Qureshi, Ahmad Hussain Dahar, Malik Muhammad Amir Dogar, Makhdoom Zain Hussain Qureshi, Muhammad
Ibrahim Khan, Mian Muhammad Shafiq, Tahir Iqbal and Aurangzeb Khan Khichi were present in the meeting.
In the interest of providing quality healthcare to patients in the public sector hospitals, the prime minister urged the MNAs to visit the hospitals of their respective areas.
Published in Daily Times, February 26th 2019.
