Senate Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue, and Economic Affairs of the Senate of Pakistan hosts the Ambassador of the Republic of Iraq to Islamabad.

Senate Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue, and Economic Affairs of the Senate of Pakistan hosted H.E. Mr. Hamid Abbas Lafta, the Ambassador of the Republic of Iraq in Islamabad, accompanied with Mr. Ayad Ayoob Saadi, Accountant at the Embassy.

The session was started by the Chairman of the Committee Senator Mohammad Talha Mahmood by welcoming H.E. the Ambassador and reviewing the growing Iraqi-Pakistani relations, after which the issue submitted by the embassy was discussed. As the State Bank of Pakistan and other Pakistani banks have refused to receive foreign missions’ revenues in hard currency (US Dollars) and demanded to transfer the deposits in local currency (Pak Rupees).

In this session, the Ambassador reviewed the social and political linkages that unite the two countries, the work of the consular section in the embassy which is issuing visas to thousands of visitors and giving other consular services after obtaining the fees of the services in US dollars. According to reciprocity between the two countries, the Embassy cannot exchange this money as it belongs to the official account of the country.

This important topic was discussed in the presence of representatives of the Federal Boad of Revenue (FBR) and Habib Bank (HBL), in which the Embassy account is opened, as well as the representative of the State Bank of Pakistan.

The Iraqi Mission won the support of all the attendees from the senate and experts, and it was agreed to reconsider the issuance of new laws and instructions, and to re-receive the mission’s funds in US dollars.