KARACHI, 2 February 2006 — Pakistan has decided to set up an Inter Agencies Task Force (IATF) at the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to check suspicious bank transactions, sources in the Ministry of Finance said in Karachi. The idea was brought forward by the SBP and is likely to be implemented by April.
Sources said that former SBP Governor Ishrat Husain floated the proposal for the task force based on the model of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). The task force would have two representatives each from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Anti Narcotics Force (ANF), National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Income Tax Department (ITD), Customs and all commercial banks.
The task force’s basic work would be to identify which agency should investigate the suspicious transaction as reported either by commercial banks, the SBP, Interpol or a country.
The details of the account(s) and transaction(s) would then be referred to the relevant agencies, which would investigate it and report back to the task force.
The task force, the sources said, would be headed by a director general, either an officer from the SBP or any of the component agencies, and would be answerable directly to the SBP governor.
