The Senate on Wednesday rejected the Anti-Terrorism Act (amendment) Bill, 2020, a day after it was passed by the National Assembly, making it the third Financial Action Task Force-related legislation to have been blocked by the opposition-dominated upper house.
Last month, the 104-member Senate had rejected the Anti-Money Laundering (Second Amendment) Bill and the Islamabad Capital Territory Waqf Properties Bill, both of which are also FATF-related, objecting to some of the provisions and linking its cooperation to retraction of remarks made by Leader of the House Dr Shahzad Waseem about certain leaders.
During today’s Senate session, 31 members voted in favour of passing the bill on terror financing while 34 voted against it.
According to the ATA (amendment) Bill, 2020, the investigating officer, with the permission of the court, can conduct covert operations to detect terrorism funding, track communications and computer system by applying latest technologies in 60 days.
Written requests would be made to the court for extension in investigation and the court may extend the period for another 60 days.
The current law will not contradict any other law and the federal government will strengthen the procedure and formulate rules for the implementation of orders.
The bill said funding for terrorism was a major obstacle in the country’s development and a source of disgrace to it. Terrorism funding was benefiting those elements which were not only a threat to internal and external peace of the country but also its allies, it said.
“The main purpose of introducing this bill is to enable law enforcement agencies to eradicate these curses by adopting certain preventive techniques with the empowered assistance of the courts of law.”
Meanwhile, the Senate passed the Cooperative Societies (amendment) Bill, 2020. It was introduced by Adviser to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs Dr Babar Awan, according to which the registrar will provide details of the society’s owners, officers and members when requested by relevant authorities.
If the society registrar does not provide the information, its registration will be suspended, the bill read. A registrar will keep a five-year record of the societies that have their registration suspended.
The relevant society officer will have to pay Rs1 million in case of violation of the law, according to the bill. If a member, employee, officer or secretary of a cooperative society is found to have committed fraud or corruption, he will face a punishment of five years along with a fine of Rs2 million.
If corruption is found to have been done in the cooperative society, then a fine of one-fourth the investment or Rs10m will have to be paid, the bill said.
