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Dar stresses for combating financing for terrorists
Minister says fool proof monitoring of funding for charities, NGOsINP
ISLAMABAD – Federal Minister for Finance and Economic Affairs Senator Ishaq Dar here on Tuesday chaired meeting of the sub-committee formed by the prime minister to recommend ways and means to choke finances for terrorists and terrorist organisations.
The participants including representatives of Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Interior, FBR, SBP, SECP, NACTA, security agencies and legal consultants discussed all relevant issues and impediments with regard to investigation, information gathering about funding of terrorist activities. These impediments, they said in turn negatively impacted the process for award of exemplary sentences to terrorists.
The meeting specially discussed the aspect of terrorist funding under the garb of charities, emphasising fresh registration and fool proof monitoring of all such organisations. The meeting expressed deep concern on narco-trafficking which it thought was a potent source of terror funding. There was also emphasis laid on coordination with international agencies to curb financing for acts of terror. The focus of security agencies is on nabbing the terrorist instead of looking for the sponsor which was the root cause of the problem.
The meeting also observed that in fact the law enforcing personnel lacked proper training and knowledge to track/investigate terrorist financing channels. Further, there was no system to maintain consolidated data on prosecutions carried out by the law enforcing agencies which could be shared by these agencies, helping their investigation. The absence of proper legislation to regulate and monitor INGOs working in Pakistan added to the problems faced by the security agencies and investigators, the participants noted.
The finance minister at this juncture said, “Most importantly we need coordination between the federal and provincial governments and agencies to deal with the problem of terrorist financing. We also need cooperation from the general public to put an end to this problem.” He said there was also need to promote legal channels for transfer of money within and from outside Pakistan. “It will help us to completely discourage hawala and hundi system,” he added.
He remarked that in the current scenario NACTA should assume the leading role in gathering and consolidation of data for use by law enforcing agencies. He said that NACTA should be pro-active in countering terrorism and clearly state the help it requires in undertaking its official obligations. He also asked the participants to peruse international best practices and laws while finalising their proposal on combating financing for terrorists and terrorist organisations.
The participants of the meeting put forth remedial measures to check and prevent financing for terrorism, also describing mechanism for their effective implementation. He appreciated fruitful deliberations by the sub-committee and urged it to finalise recommendations which were practicable and could prove decisive in rooting out terrorist funding. These recommendations will be presented to the prime minister along with proposals of other sub-committees for consideration.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk