Pakistan's National Assembly has passed an important bill relating to the exchange of information and criminals with the countries of the world to meet the criteria of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). According to Dawn News, on Monday, opposition parties tried to disrupt the bill by challenging the order passed by Speaker Asad Kaiser on a voice vote.
Opposition parties opposed the bill
The opposition parties had allowed the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan to introduce the bill. However, after being defeated by 83 votes against 87 votes, the opposition parties took part in the process and introduced four minor amendments. As soon as the Minister wanted to introduce the Mutual Legal Assistant (Criminal Matter) Bill 2019 in the House, the uproar started.
Opposition said the bill against fundamental rights
Saeed Naveed Qamar, leader of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) parliamentary party, called the law against the fundamental rights of the citizens of Pakistan. He said that after the passage of this bill, the government will be able to get information from other countries. Without the signing of any treaty on the demand of those countries, they will extradite their citizens to them. Qamar said that at present no country complies with the request of the Government of Pakistan to extradite a wanted person to Pakistan, because there has been a perception that cases are filed in Pakistan for political reasons.
Information minister responsible for opposition
Information and Technology Minister Fawad Chaudhary criticized the opposition for opposing the bill, alleging that the last two governments had been responsible for implicating Pakistan in the FATF trap. He said that under FATF all countries exchange information and criminals.
