The federal government has decided to form a task force to stop money laundering, it emerged on Wednesday.
The final approval for the task force will be given by Prime Minister Imran Khan.
According to sources, offices for the task force will be established at airports and in all provinces. The Interior Secretary is expected to head the taskforce with provincial chief secretaries heading it on the provincial level. Members will also include officials from intelligence agencies, NAB, ANF and FIA.
The decision to form the task force is part of recommendations made by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
In June, the FATF said Pakistan had made “a high-level political commitment” to work with the global watchdog and Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) to strengthen its anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism regime.
Pakistan was formally added to the grey list of countries after a June meeting of FATF in Paris.
FATF, a global body that combats terror-financing and money laundering, had made the decision to place Pakistan on its grey list during a plenary meeting in February this year. The country was also included in the list from 2012 to 2015.
The government of Prime Minister Imran Khan has made it a focus to target money laundering. Last month, a task force was formed to bring back money illegally stashed abroad.
Published in Daily Times, October 18th 2018.
