ISLAMABAD, 20 September 2003 — US Treasury Secretary John Snow yesterday lavished praise on efforts by key ally Pakistan to curb the channeling of funds to terrorists, introducing new laws for traditional money transfer networks once favored by terror groups.
“I think that the government of Pakistan has made enormous strides,” Snow said, echoing praise bestowed on Pakistan by US President George W. Bush and top officials.
“The president (Pervez Musharraf) has made it clear that Pakistan wants to be and is in the forefront of war on terror and terrorist finance.”
The secretary arrived in Islamabad from Kabul late Thursday for a series of talks with Musharraf, Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali and Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz. He is on a 10-day tour of the Middle East and South Asia.
“We are very pleased by the strong headway that Pakistan has made on the terrorist and terrorist money front,” Snow told a press conference after talks with Aziz.
Snow underlined Islamabad’s moves to regulate hawalas, which were used mainly in the Middle East and South Asia to transfer money around the world without leaving a paper trail. They were considered a prime source of fund transfers for terror organizations.
“Evidence of (Pakistan’s commitment) is the strong action that has been taken on money-laundering, and the registration and regulation of hawala networks,” Snow said.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, Pakistan has introduced tough new regulations for hawalas, requiring them to register and use traceable banking channels. Snow visited a newly regulated hawala set up in a branch of the state-run National Bank of Pakistan, where Pakistani officials briefed him on efforts to “bring transparency in foreign exchange transactions,” a Finance Ministry official told AFP.
Finance Minister Aziz said the prevention of money laundering in Pakistan, which still has no law against the practice, was a major discussion point.
The government has drafted its first-ever law against money laundering, but the legislation languishes in a Parliament hamstrung by opposition protests over Musharraf’s unelected presidency and sweeping self-appointed powers.
Aziz insisted that Pakistan needed the cooperation of other countries to fight illegal money transfers, saying “it takes two to tango”.
“Money comes from various countries, from one or two sectors, then they come to the recipient country. If money comes from country A through country B to country C, all three have to sing the same tune and that is not happening today. There is (this) one frustration.”
Snow also urged Pakistan to keep contributing to the reconstruction of neighboring Afghanistan, and discussed economic cooperation between Washington and Islamabad.
“One of the important out-takes from our meeting is the intention from both sides to do more trade and to remove the barriers that stand in the way of trade,” Snow said.
Snow met Pakistani business leaders to “explore the potential of increased cooperation between the private sectors of respective countries,” the Finance Ministry official said.
Pakistan, home to several Islamic extremist organizations and a hideout for hundreds of Al-Qaeda fugitives, has evolved as a crucial ally of Washington in its anti-terror campaign since the Sept. 11 attacks.
Its intelligence agencies have arrested around 500 Al-Qaeda suspects who slipped over the border from Afghanistan to escape the US-led military assault that began in October 2001.
The secretary was to leave later for Dubai to attend International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings.
