Pak minister calls for probe into issues linked with 'economic terrorism'

Pakistan's Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry has called for forming a parliamentary panel to probe issues linked with "economic terrorism", a media report said Thursday.

Speaking in the Senate, Chaudhry on Wednesday referred to the recently unearthed 5,000 fake bank accounts which were used to stash billions of dollars abroad and said the proposed parliamentary committee would see to whom these accounts belonged to, Dawn reported.

He said information received from 10 countries showed that these accounts had been used to launder Rs 70,000 crore.

The minister said the committee should also see as to how allocations made in successive budgets had been spent and why the government was forced to lend money to pay back loans.

The idea was endorsed in principle by Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani who promised to consult the leader of the House and the leader of the opposition in the Senate, besides discussing it with the National Assembly speaker, the paper said.

Pakistan has been under the radar of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for failing to eliminate money laundering and terror financing.

The country was put on the grey list by the FATF in June and instructed to take a series of action to avoid being pushed on the black list.