Awareness sessions about hazards of money laundering planned
QUETTA: The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Pakistan, is conducting a series of outreach sessions in collaboration with the Federal Board of Revenue to create awareness about international standards, domestic frameworks, risks and controls against money laundering and terrorism financing.
The UNODC has been working with the government of Pakistan to strengthen frameworks and capacities of its institutions that are performing key roles in the fight against financial crimes, including corruption, money laundering and terrorist financing.
In line with its five-year country programme and under its Anti-Money Laundering (AML) support programme, the delivery of these outreach sessions has been collaborated closely with key governmental institutions of Pakistan that are central to the framework of AML and the Counter-Financing of Terrorism (CFT) of the country.
These institutions include: Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Financial Monitoring Unit; Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan; National Counter Terrorism Authority; and Federal Board of Revenue.
FBR’s Inland Revenue office in Quetta has extended instrumental support in coordinating participation in these sessions.
Yousaf Hyder Shaikh, chief commissioner of the Inland Revenue, formally opened the session with his welcome remarks. He reiterated the need and importance of such awareness sessions.
The outreach sessions are aimed at providing expert information of the legal framework and institutional activities on AML/CFT with special emphasis on counter measures for not-for-profit organisations (NPOs) and designated non-financial businesses and professions (DNFBPs). These sessions will help in building understanding and enhancing capacity, particularly among NPOs and DNFBPs with respect to their role in the counter measures against money laundering and terrorist financing.
Various DNFBP sectors attending these sessions include lawyers, accountants, real estate agents and dealers of gems and jewellery.
Published in Dawn, November 5th, 2019