PAK PARLIAMENT PASSES LEGAL ASSISTANCE BILL TO COMPLY WITH FATF DEMANDS

Press Trust of India

Pakistan’s parliament has passed a bill for providing legal assistance in international criminal matters to fulfil the conditions set by the global financial watchdog FATF.

The Mutual Legal Assistance (Criminal Matters) Amendment Bill was passed by the Senate, the upper house, on Friday.

Pakistan was placed on the grey list by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in June, 2018 and was given a plan of action to complete it by October, 2019. Since then, Pakistan continues to be in that list due to its failure to comply with the mandates.

According to the statement of objects and reasons of the bill, an increase in transnational crime has made it necessary for the international community and Pakistan to improve the effectiveness of legal instruments because lack of uniformity in law and weak coordination affects combating of crimes across borders.

“International cooperation in criminal matters through mutual legal assistance and extradition is intended to bridge existing gaps in respective countries towards effective law enforcement. The requested state will provide mutual legal support to the requesting state by executing necessary actions on its territory in any specific criminal case warranting shared assistance,” it read.

However, Opposition parties tried to stop the passing of the bill, saying that it would give unhindered power to the state to hand over Pakistanis to other countries based on allegations.

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