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- NOT TO BE PUBLISHED TELECAST OR BROADCAST BEFORE THE MORNING OF FEBRUARY 22, 2010
PR
No. 280 Following is the English rendering of the message of President and Chief Scout, Pakistan , Mr. Asif Ali Zardari:- Dear Scouts, Scouting is an international movement which nourishes the spiritual, mental physical and social capabilities of the youth through informal education and instills in them characteristics of love, sympathy and selfless services for the humanity. Today more than 28 million scouts are expressing their resolve to take forward the aims and objectives of these movements by celebrating World Scouts Day, I congratulate the scouts all over the world particularly the scouts of Pakistan. Scouts movement has completed 62 years in Pakistan. Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, first Chief Scout of Pakistan on the occasion of beginning of this movement, said:- “Scouting values play very important role in the character building of our Young generation specially their physical and spiritual development and make them useful and good citizen by bringing them under disciplined way of life”. I appeal to the parents of children and youth of Pakistan to encourage their children to join scouts movement. We are taking positive measures to promote scouting in Pakistan Constitutional infrastructure of scouting as an organization is being changed to run it on right course. The theme of scouting movement for year 2010 is: “Promotion of scouting through attractive programmes”. I believe that through these interesting programmes the scouts from all over the world would strive to tackle the situation arising out of extremism and intolerance and work for the creation of harmony and evolution of the peace in the society. I appeal to all the educational institutions of the country for the establishment of Scout Units in their respective institutions. I assure Pakistan Boys Scouts Association and all scouts of the country that I will give all the support and patronage to their organizations” I pray to Almighty Allah that Pakistan may become the country full of peace and tranquility with the efforts of the scouting! Ameen. NOT TO BE PUBLISHED, TELECAST OR BROADCAST BEFORE THE MORNING OF FEBRUARY 22, 2010
PR
No. 281 Federal Minister for Environment Mr. Hameed Ullah Jan Afridi is leaving on 22nd February 2010 for Bali, Indonesia with a delegation to attend 11th Special Session of the Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) from 24-26 February, 2010. The Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum is a premier global environmental policy forum. Nearly 100 Ministers and over 1000 Government officials, civil society and private sector representatives are expected to attend the meeting in Bali. Under the overarching theme “Environment in the multilateral system”, three issues ‘International Environmental Governance and sustainable development’, ‘The Green Economy’ and ‘Biodiversity and Ecosystems’. are the areas on the international agenda that will be addressed. The objective of the Ministerial Consultations of the 11th special session of the UNEP GC/GMEF is to focus on emerging policy issues in the field of the environment.
PR
No. 282 A large segment of mainstream print and electronic media has reported the outcome of FATF’s recent plenary held in Abu Dhabi with reference to US Treasury Department’s related comments. Based on the feedback provided by the team representing Pakistan at the FATF, the Government of Pakistan wishes to place on record the following statement. It is regrettable that non-judicious choice of words was made in a highly technical area of expertise in which Pakistan as a sovereign jurisdiction has made considerable progress and meaningful and credible engagement in the global war against Money Laundering (ML)/Terrorism Financing (TF). Ironically, FATF does not maintain any blacklist as attributed to it in the news reports that appeared in the various newspapers on Saturday, the 20th February 2010, and is thus factually incorrect and misleading. Pakistan has signified its resolve to converge to the international standards outlined by the FATF in the area of prevention of money laundering and countering financing of terrorism. Pakistan is already a signatory to all the relevant UN conventions & protocols in the AML/CFT (Anti-Money Laundering I Combating Financing of Terrorism) domain and is well aware of its international obligations in the pursuit to progressively adopting primary and subsidiary legislation as well as reinforcing the implementing apparatus within the country and in support of international initiatives in the area. Pakistan underwent a thorough review of its AML/CFT regime in Jan 2009 on the status of its compliance with the international standards and related Evaluation report on Pakistan was finalized and adopted by APG (Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering) in its annual meeting in July 2009. In response to the identified weaknesses in Pakistan’s AML/CFT regime, a number of supporting regulations were issued by the regulators as well as by law enforcement agencies while a substantially revised AML Ordinance was issued by the President on 26th November 2009 which now stands approved by the National Assembly and is awaiting approval of the Senate, a precursor to President’s signature making the legislation as Act of Parliament. Most of the continuing concerns of the international body FATF are based on the perception of an Ordinance as being in the nature of a temporary law due to its 120 days validity unless reissued or approved by the parliament within that period. With the Senate’s approval of AML Act which is expected in due course, most of the underlying concerns would stand resolved/addressed. In this context, it is reiterated that Pakistan’s financial system is well insulated from attempts of misuse by ML or TF possibilities due to traditionally strong regulatory framework and proactive approach to adopting extensive KYC/CDD measures to protect the financial system and constant adjustments made as a matter of policy so as to remain in step to the international best practices and norms. It is also a fact that Pakistan’s financial system, legislation, regulations or operational characteristics were not even remotely connected to the vulnerabilities to which the international financial system was exposed due to flawed policies & risk assessment models in vogue in the developed economies which have not only stagnated the world economy but has taken emerging economies in the deeper end of the water wiping out several years of steady economic progress due to actions and inactions particular to handful of economies of the developed world. Pakistan as a sovereign nation reiterates its commitment to converge to the international standards and best practices in all areas including AML/CFT and will continue 10 take steps as it deems fit toward this end. It also needs to be: appreciated that among the FATF’s currently identified eight countries, Pakistan is a country which has been rigorously assessed under FATF’s methodologies and procedures while a large number of countries in the world are still to be subjected to an evaluation of their AML/CFT regime. Nevertheless, FATF categorizes the eight countries in three categories in which 5 countries (viz. Iran, Angola, DPRK, Ecuador and Ethiopia) were placed in the first two categories of countries that have either been categorized as high-risk countries or non-committed countries against which FATF has also advised to apply counter-measures. Pakistan’s name is included in the category three of countries (viz. Pakistan, Turkmenistan, and Sao Tome and Principe) whose AML/CFT regime was viewed as deficient only on the basis of previously identified grounds. However, the government of Pakistan is confident that grounds for deficiencies have largely been addressed by virtue of the amendments since incorporated in AML Ordinance 2009, which is a valid piece of legislation while the issue of permanency of AML/CFT regime would also he resolved once the AML law is passed by the Senate, Foregoing in view, there is hardly any justification or substance to bracket Pakistan along with countries mentioned and any such attempts or insinuations in respect to Pakistan as being not sufficiently subscribing to international standards and best practices would be based on political agendas not in consonance with mandates of international prestigious bodies like FATF.
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