DRAFT — 14 Punjab police officers to get anti-money-laundering training in China

• Suggested slug: punjab-police-anti-money-laundering-training-china
• Category: National
• Focus keyphrase: Punjab police training China
• SEO title: Punjab Police Officers to Train in China on Money Laundering
• Meta description: Fourteen Punjab police officers will undergo high-level anti-money-laundering training in China from October 28, covering illicit fund transfers and trade-based laundering.
• Tags: Punjab Police, money laundering, China, FATF, IGP Punjab, trade-based money laundering
• Original element: explainer context — FATF grey-list history and China’s current FATF presidency, drawn from verified public facts, to explain why the training is being held in Beijing’s system
• Source: https://tribune.com.pk/story/2635633/punjab-cops-to-get-specialised-training-in-china (Tribune, published 19 Oct 2026, 06:05 PKT)
• Story date: 19 October 2026

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RAWALPINDI: The inspector general of Punjab police has nominated 14 officers for high-level training in China aimed at strengthening Pakistan’s system for combating money laundering and the financing of illegal activity.

The officers will be trained by experts in detecting and preventing money laundering from October 28 to November 10 at a police training institute in China. The programme will focus on identifying illicit financial transfers and on trade-based money laundering, one of the harder channels of dirty money to trace.

What the officers will learn

The training will cover the movement of illicit funds and precious minerals that could be used to finance terrorism or other illegal activities in Pakistan, particularly in Punjab. Participants will be familiarised with modern methods used to transfer illicit funds across borders.

China currently holds the presidency of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the international body that sets global standards against money laundering and terrorist financing. That presidency gives the training added significance: Pakistani officers will learn the compliance and detection methods favoured by the country steering the FATF’s current agenda.

Why FATF history matters here

Pakistan was placed on the FATF’s grey list because of concerns over the movement of illegal funds within and outside the country. The country was later removed from the grey list following improved performance and effective measures against money laundering, after a concerted compliance drive that drew on banking reforms, prosecutions and tighter financial monitoring.

Staying off the grey list has real economic stakes. Grey-listing raises the cost of international transactions, slows correspondent banking and signals risk to investors. For a country working to stabilise its external accounts, with the State Bank’s reserves recently reported above $26 billion, keeping the financial system clean is a matter of economic self-interest as much as of law enforcement.

The officers selected

The nominated officers span senior and field ranks of the Punjab police. They include DIG Commandant Punjab Constabulary Hassan Habib Imtiaz, DIG Special Protection Unit Punjab Muhammad Tayyab Hafeez, SSP and Chief Traffic Officer Lahore Syed Abdul Rahim Shirazi, SSP and Additional Director Operations Punjab Muhammad Usman Bajwa, SSP Investigation Lahore Muhammad Naveed, SSP CTD Intelligence Punjab Lahore Asif Amin Awan, SSP Intelligence Special Branch Punjab Lahore Muhammad Faraz Ahmed, and SSP Administration CTD Punjab Lahore Noshiwan Ali.

Also selected are SSP RO CTD Lahore Shameer Khalid, SP Training-I at Police College Sihala in Rawalpindi Saad Arshad, Additional SP Cantt Division Multan Dr Khadija Umar, SP Investigation Sialkot Muhammad Haseeb Raja, and ASP SDPO Sialkot City Bushra Aziz.

Building investigative capacity

The programme continues a run of investment in Punjab police capability. The province recently launched 33 mobile police stations with on-the-spot FIR registration, a move aimed at making the first point of contact with the force easier for citizens.

Capacity has also been a theme elsewhere: Quetta’s 2,900-camera CCTV security project shows how provinces are pairing manpower training with technology to strengthen surveillance and detection.

Courts have meanwhile kept pressure on the conduct of investigators, as seen in the Peshawar High Court’s ruling in a case involving a police inspector, underlining that training must be matched by accountability.

The China programme is the latest step in that direction, sending senior officers to learn the methods of the jurisdiction currently leading the global anti-money-laundering framework.