LAHORE: To fulfill another requirement of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the Federal Government has approved establishing eight new police stations for the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to specifically deal with Anti-Money Laundering and Counterfeit crimes, Bol News has learnt.
A notification in this regard has been issued by Interior Ministry on August 25. Exercising the power conferred by sub-section (4) of section 3 of the Federal Investigation Agency Act, 1974 (VII of 1975), for the purposes of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1898, the Federal Government has established eight police stations (AML-CFT Circles) including Karachi with an area of jurisdiction of Karachi, Hyderabad and Bhambore Divisions, Lahore with an area of jurisdiction of Lahore and Gujranwala Divisions, Faisalabad with an area of jurisdiction of Faisalabad and Sargodha Divisions, Multan with an area of jurisdiction of Multan, D.G.Khan, Sahiwal and Bahawalpur Divisions, Sukkur with an area of jurisdiction of Sukkur, Larkana, Marpurkhas and Shaheed Benazir Abid Divisions.
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Similarly, separate police stations have been established in Islamabad with an area of jurisdiction of Rawalpindi, Islamabad Capital Territory and Gilgit-Baltistan and Quetta with an area of the whole of the province of Balochistan. Moreover, a separate police station for anti-money laundering cases has been established in Peshawar with an area of jurisdiction of the whole of province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK).
A senior FIA official told Bol News that these police stations have been established on the requirement of FATF where Pakistan currently stands on its grey list. He said these special police stations will deal with anti-money laundering and counterfeit cases across the country. He said separate buildings for officials which will be attached to these circles have been acquired.
To a question, the FIA official said representatives of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and other law enforcement agencies will coordinate and cooperate under one roof while investigating such heinous crimes. The FIA will lead the investigations.
