“We are receiving phone calls from US and UK high-ups for speeding up approval of anti-money laundering bill,” the treasury MNA, Kashmala Tariq revealed during the proceedings of National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance here on Thursday.

The members of the committee were of the view that the legislation should be proposed in a manner that other countries could not pressurise upcoming government for providing them information only on the basis of suspicion.

Minister of State for Finance, Omar Ayub, read out the anti-money laundering bill clause by clause during the committee’s meeting. PPPP leader Naveed Qamar said the proposed law envisaged wide powers for investigation officer, which can be easily exploited.

MNA Murtaza Satti criticised certain provision of the proposed law and demanded the government bring certain changes in the shape of improving recruitment criteria for investigating officers in order to avoid unwarranted situation. He said the NAB adopted arm-twisting tactics as investigating army officers behaved with people in a way as if they were foreign combatants. Such practices resulted in closure of businesses and some businessmen suffered heart attack while under NAB investigation, he added.