ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Senate on Thursday approved two pieces of legislation that are said to be important since they are likely to take the country off the Financial Action Task Force's gray list.
The FATF placed Pakistan on the list in 2018 due to inadequate controls over terrorism financing, but the Anti-terrorism (Amendment) Bill, 2020, and the United Nations Security Council (Amendment) Bill, 2020, are supposed to take care of some of the global financial watchdog's requirements.
Praising the country's upper house of parliament, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi described the Senate as a "mature forum" where political parties could rise above their differences and work to protect Pakistan's national interest.
"We are doing our best to take the country off the FATF gray list," he said. "The passage of these bills will help us move in that direction."
Just a day before, the National Assembly passed the two bills amid protest by the opposition.
As the prime minister's adviser on parliamentary affairs, Babar Awan, tabled the bills, opposition members objected to a speech by the foreign minister in which he revealed some details of an informal meeting between the government and opposition politicians.
During Thursday's proceedings, however, Qureshi claimed that the country had positively addressed "Indian ambition" of putting Pakistan on FATF's blacklist by agreeing to pass the two bills.
