19 March 2019, Karachi. UNODC in collaboration with the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs organized a multi-agency workshop on 18-19 March 2019 on countering terrorism financing (CTF) for officials from the State Bank of Pakistan, Securities and Exchange Commission, Financial Monitoring Unit, Counter Terrorism Departments, and Intelligence Agencies.

The first day commenced with opening remarks from Mr Muhammad Iqbal, Director General NACTA; Mr Ahmed Farooq, Director General Counter Terrorism Division MOFA; and Mr Syed Arslan, Programme Advisor UNODC Pakistan. They welcomed the participants, and explained the need for regulators and law enforcement agencies to develop their capacities in proactively countering the financing of terrorism.

Following the opening remarks there was a presentation on the United Nations framework for countering terrorism financing and international standards by Mr Philip Divett, Terrorism Prevention Branch UNODC Vienna.

In the afternoon Mr Divett gave a further presentation on emerging threats, sources, and typologies, while highlighting the challenges faced by law enforcement and the regulators.

This was followed by a presentation on GoAML, a system enabling STRs to be analysed, and the reporting and sharing of information, delivered by Mr Adnan Imran, Director FMU.

The day concluded with Mr Maqsood Ahmad Memon DIG Sindh's presentation of a case study focussing on terror attacks in Pakistan over recent years, including a detailed case study of a specific incident.

The following day began with a presentation by Mr Simon Welch, UNODC on the risk-based approach model the financial sectors should adopt for effectively detecting terrorism financing. The attendees were given a group exercise in evaluating the risk profile of potential bank clients. This was followed by a case study of banks fined for insufficiently strong compliance controls. 

Mr Welch then gave a presentation on the United Kingdom's model for countering terrorism financing and working with the financial sector. This focused on liaison with the financial sector, and how Pakistan could learn from the UK model's development.

In the afternoon Mr Divett introduced a group exercise involving the scenario of a suspect stopped from entering Pakistan with large quantities of cash and forged documents. The attendees were divided into groups to discuss how this subject should be dealt with under Pakistani law, and how they could interact with foreign jurisdictions, before each group was asked to present its findings to the others. 

All addresses and activities were followed by Q&A sessions, which resulted in the sharing of some very proactive views.

A similar workshop was organised in Karachi on 21-22 March 2019 in which, in addition to the above-mentioned presentations, Mr Khurram Rana, FIA delivered a session on case preparation guidelines for LEAs when dealing with terrorism financing cases.

The workshop in Karachi was attended inter alia by Mr Katsumoto Biyajima, Embassy of Japan, who addressed the participants and reiterated the Government of Japan's support in delivering technical assistance to LEAs in Pakistan in close cooperation with UNODC.

At the end of both workshops the participants were awarded with certificates. This training was made possible by the support of the Government of Japan.