ISLAMABAD: Military officers in the two highly sensitive positions — Director General Military Operations (DGMO) and a director general of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) — may become part of the National Executive Committee (NEC) on terror-financing and money laundering as the federal cabinet will meet on Tuesday (today) to decide the matter.

It will be for the first time in the country’s history that military officers in the two key positions will be made members of any national body to counter money laundering if the federal cabinet gives approval to the finance division’s request though earlier in June Prime Minister Imran Khan had included Chief of the Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa in a 13-member National Development Council (NDC).

In Tuesday meeting, the cabinet will also take a decision about inclusion of federal Minister for Economic Affairs Hammad Azhar in the NEC as according to the cabinet meeting agenda, the finance division has sought “approval of the federal government in respect of inclusion of minister of economic affairs division as member of National Executive Committee (NEC) and Director General Military Operations and Director General [c] ISI as members of General Committee (GC) under Section 5 & 5(4) of AML Act, 2010”.

PM Khan had earlier in June included Gen Bajwa in a 13-member NDC that was established to set policies and strategies for development and “formulate and tailor policies to achieve accelerated economic growth”. The NDC is also responsible for approving long-term planning in relation to national and regional connectivity.

Cabinet to take decision today; minister-led coordination committee likely to work under NEC to get Pakistan out of FATF grey list

More recently the prime minister had reportedly approved a new strategy for the implementation of 27 conditions of the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to get Pakistan out of its grey list and the inclusion of top ranking military officials and federal minister for economic affairs division in NEC is a part of the strategy.

Another high-powered 12-member National Coordination Committee (NCC), headed by Minister Azhar, to ensure execution of all FATF-related tasks till Dec 1 will reportedly work under the NEC.

Other members of the NCC are three senior officials from the military’s General Headquarters (GHQ), secretaries of foreign affairs, interior and finance, besides heads of all institutions and regulatory bodies related to money laundering and terror financing. They include the governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), chairman of Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), director general of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), member (customs) of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and DG of the Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU).

Before NCC’s establishment, the finance minister or adviser to prime minister on finance along with finance secretary used to lead all activities relating to anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) to meet targets set by the FATF and its regional affiliate Asia-Pacific Group (AGP) under a comprehensive action plan to move out of the grey list of the global watchdog on financial crimes.

Pakistan is currently being monitored at three different but interlinked levels — APG, the United States and the FATF — that would determine the country’s possible exit from the FATF grey list.

In July, the National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta) had declared two more outfits — Hizbul Ahrar and Balochistan Raaji Ajoi Sangar (BRAS) — as proscribed organisations under Section 11-B of the Anti-Terrorism Act increasing the total number of banned outfits in the country to 73.

Pakistan has engaged technical assistance providers as consultants in key institutions such as the FBR, SECP, FMU and SBP with the support of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) to complete the action plan and further strengthen the effectiveness of the AML/CFT regime.

Federal cabinet meeting agenda

Other important decisions expected to be taken by the cabinet are about construction of highrises in Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Multan; re-constitution of the board of directors of the Sui Southern Gas Company Limited; restructuring of the board of directors of Pakistan Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (PLL); termination of contract of chief executive officer/managing director of Pakistan LNG Limited; restructuring of the board of directors of government holdings and grant of management position (MP-I) scale to Dr Aamer Ahmed, chairman of the Evacuee’s Trust Property Board.

Published in Dawn, October 29th, 2019