ISLAMABAD
Senate standing committee on finance, revenue, economic affairs, statistics and privatisation has asked Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to investigate the money laundering worth billions of rupees through the gift scheme. The committee has also asked Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) to brief it about the fraudulent tactics at Bank of Punjab in sales and purchase of shares.
The meeting of the committee, which was held on Tuesday at Parliament House, was chaired by Senator Saleem Mandviwalla and attended among others by members including Ilyas Ahmed Bilour, Muhammad Mohsin Khan Leghari, Kamil Ali Agha, Saud Majeed and Muhammad Azam Khan Swati.
The committee initially considered the Private Member Bill presented by Senator Muhammad Azam Khan Swati regarding amendment in the Financial Institutions (Recovery of Finances) Ordinance, 2001.
As per the Deputy Governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), one such bill had been incorporated in 2016 which had contained a similar amendment. Hence, Senator Azam Khan Swati decided to withdraw his bill.
The committee took up the second item on agenda of discussing the Private Member Bill introduced by Saleem Mandviwalla regarding the amendment in Protection of Economic Reforms Act, 1992. The chairman decided to send recommendations to the finance division regarding it.
The committee was briefed by Chairman FBR Tariq Pasha regarding a case dealt in the precincts of the Anti-Money Laundering Act and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT). The chairman stressed that FBR must not try cases of tax payers under the above mentioned Act.
The committee was briefed by FBR about the case of gift arrangements by 2785 individuals through money laundering. The committee was told that the case is under initial scrutiny and FBR would brief regarding the outcomes in a future meeting. The FBR has corrected the report regarding amnesty scheme for motor vehicles and it was proposed to put up the report in the house. FBR representative informed that at least Rs 102 billion was laundered through the gift scheme last year.
The chairman took note of the issue of alleged manipulation of share prices by Bank of Punjab (BoP) in order to offload shares and take 70 per cent control of the bank rights. The committee heard the complaints of the shareholder; so the chairman directed the SECP and SBP to provide a reply in the next meeting.
Shareholders of the bank had informed the committee that President BoP Naeem-Ud-Din was involved in the fraudulent activity.
