Fully equipped Combating Financing of Terrorism units planned

ISLAMABAD, June 5 (APP):The government plans to establish fully trained and equipped Combating
Financing of Terrorism (CFT) units at respective federal and provincial
departments to improve inter-agency coordination.
The CFT units would investigate money laundering, terror
financing, asset tracing and financial investigation.
As per National Internal Security Policy 2018-2023, Anti
Terrorism Act (1997) and Anti Money Laundering Act (2010) provide
strict laws in Pakistan against financing of terrorism.
Steps are being taken to improve enforcement of these laws
by establishing an effective Combating Financing of Terrorism (CFT)
regime in the country with investigative, analytic, deterrent and
preventive roles.
The document while listing the steps revealed that specialized
training will be provided to prosecution and judicial branches of
criminal justice system to improve conviction rates while
a National Task Force on Choking Terrorism – a coordinating body
of over 20 Federal and Provincial Organizations has already been
established to improve inter-agency coordination in this regard.
Moreover, stringent controls on cross-border movement of
money and branchless/internet banking have been enforced in
collaboration with Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU) at State
Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
The FMU has already prepared its own AML-CFT (Anti Money Laundering-Combating Financing of Terrorism) strategy in this regard.
Highlighting some other steps to be taken on an urgent
basis for further enhancing CFT capability, the documents said
Facilitation and Regulation of Charities Act will be enacted
to ensure that every penny donated into charity is accounted
for.
The existing laws will be reviewed and amended where
necessary to bring them at par with international standards.
An International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs) policy
has already been enforced by Ministry of Interior to regulate
registration, working, funding, monitoring and other related aspects
pertaining to all types of INGOs functioning in Pakistan.
All necessary steps will also be taken to implement
international agreements with regard to acting on funding
sources of terrorism and proscribed organizations. Regional and
international collaboration in tackling militant networks will
be enhanced.
Efforts will also be made to enforce an arms embargo,
impose travel restrictions, freeze movable and immovable property
and curtail fund raising ability of proscribed organizations.
Meanwhile, modern technology data will be leveraged to
improve processes, enhance efficiency and effectiveness, increase
transparency and institutionalize new ways of delivering public
services.
Already, the Integrated Border Management System, Safe
City project and bio-metric SIM registration systems are successful
examples of using Information Technology to achieve these objectives.
New initiatives will also be launched along the lines.
Under the policy, a number of information systems
will be developed and deployed. National Database and Registration
Authority (NADRA) will be empowered to take a lead on
development/implementations of these systems.
These include Information System proposed under criminal
justice system reforms, Pakistan Visa processing system designed
to streamline visa application, National centralized vehicle
database and National criminal database and fingerprint
identification system.
It has also been envisaged in the policy that a National
Cyber Security Strategy shall be developed to secure services and
infrastructure from cyber-attacks. A combined civil-military
cyber command force shall be established to ensure intra and
inter agency coordination.
Cyber crimes Wing at Federal Investigation Agency (FIA)
and Cyber Security Wing at National Counter Terrorism Authority
(NACTA) will be strengthened and their capacity enhanced to curb
cyber crimes and monitor misuse of cyberpaces for extremist or
proscribed organizations in collaboration with Pakistan
Telecommunication Authority (PTA).
Public campaigns will be launched to promote awareness
about cyber security threats.