[Current Affairs] August 27,2020 Top Pakistan Current Affairs for FPSC Test Preparation

What’s going on? If you’ve been reading about the opposition in the Senate rejecting two FATF-related bills, and it’s not making anyyy sense to you, it’s okay. This complex political clash has been making headlines for the past few days, and we will do our best to over simplify it for you without sounding like a dry policy paper.

The details: There are two Financial Action Task Force (FATF) related bills called the Anti-Money Laundering (Second Amendment) Bill, and the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Waqf Properties Bill. The opposition, which has a majority in the Senate, rejected these bills, even though the National Assembly passed both bills a day earlier. The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) govt thinks these bills are necessary to get Pakistan off the FATF grey list (i.e. a list of countries that are under increased monitoring, and working with the FATF to counter money laundering and terrorist financing).

Tell me more:

• The govt’s story: Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan lashed out at the opposition in a series of tweets. He said they will “keep threatening to bring down the govt unless given NRO.” The National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) is a 2007 order that granted amnesty to politicians, political workers, and bureaucrats who were accused of corruption, money laundering, murder, and terrorism between January 1, 1986 and October 12, 1999. The Supreme Court declared the NRO unconstitutional in December 2009. You have likely heard PM Khan bring up the NRO in almost every single speech he has made in the past two years.

• The opposition’s story: The opposition thinks PTI will misuse these bills to strong-arm and intimidate political opponents. For example, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Senator, Sherry Rahman, claimed that police and investigators will have the power to make arrests without warrants. The opposition also rejected the bills after Leader of the House and PTI leader, Dr. Shahzad Waseem, refused to apologize for comments he made about the opposition last week. Dr. Waseem blamed previous govts and their policies for getting Pakistan on the FATF grey list. He also claimed that certain politicians were facing money laundering charges – there are mixed reports about whether he took any names.

Looking ahead: The PTI govt will summon a joint-parliament session next week to table the bills again.

The bottom line: Mainstream media outlets haven’t spelled out what each bill entails. The opposition and ruling govt are accusing each other of having self-serving ulterior motives.