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The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global watchdog on terror financing and money laundering, Friday announced its decision to free Pakistan from its “grey list”.
In a statement, FATF welcomed Pakistan’s significant progress in improving its anti-money laundering and combating financial terrorism (AML/CFT) regime.
“Pakistan is no longer subject to FATF’s increased monitoring process; to continue to work with APG (Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering) to further improve its AML/CFT (anti-money laundering & counter-terrorist financing) system,” it said.
The decision was taken by the FATF in its plenary held in Paris on October 20-21.
The global watchdog also said that Pakistan “strengthened effectiveness of its AML/CFT regime and addressed technical deficiencies to meet commitments of its action plans regarding strategic deficiencies that FATF identified”.
India reacts
Reacting to the news, India said that the FATF scrutiny had forced Pakistan to “take some action against well-known terrorists”.
“It is in global interest that the world remains clear that Pakistan must continue to take credible, verifiable, irreversible and sustained action against terrorism and terrorist financing emanating from territories under its control,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, reported news agency PTI.
Replying to a question on the issue, he said: “As a result of the FATF scrutiny, Pakistan has been forced to take some action against well-known terrorists, including those involved in attacks against the entire international community in Mumbai on 26/11.”
“We understand that Pakistan will continue to work with the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) to further improve its Anti Money Laundering (AML) or Counter Terror Financing (CFT) system,” he added.
‘Pakistan addressed all 34 items gived’
At a virtual press conference, FATF president T Raja Kumar, who is from Singapore, said Pakistan has largely addressed all the 34 items given by the FATF.
“The FATF looked into the mechanism put in place by Pakistan to combat financial terrorism and money laundering. The team went down to Pakistan and found the high-level political commitment of Pakistan not only act to combat financial terrorism and money laundering but ensuring reforms and strengthen the system,” he said.
Kumar said there has been significant progress on the part of Pakistan to combat financial terrorism and money laundering which resulted in Pakistan being taken off from the increased monitoring mechanism or the grey list. However, he said, Pakistan still needs to continue to work in this regard and the FATF encourages Pakistan to cooperate with the FATF’s Asia Pacific Group to combat financial terrorism and money laundering.
Kumar said, Pakistan still needs to continue to work in this regard and the FATF encourages Pakistan to cooperate with the FATF’s Asia Pacific Group to combat financial terrorism and money laundering.
The decision will enable the country to get foreign funds to overcome its economic situation.
This development comes more than four years after the FATF put Pakistan on its grey list for the country’s failure to check the risk of money laundering, leading to corruption and terror financing.
Pakistan had completed most of the action items given to it by the FATF in 2018. However, only a few items that were left unfulfilled included its failure to take action against UN-designated terrorists, including Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed and his trusted aide and the group’s “operational commander”, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.
In a meeting in June, the FATF said it was keeping Pakistan on the list but said it might be removed after an on-site visit to verify progress. Last month, Pakistan’s foreign office said that a technical team from FATF had conducted a “successful” visit and Islamabad was expecting a “logical conclusion” of the evaluation process in October.
With Pakistan on the list, it had increasingly become difficult for Islamabad to get financial aid from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the European Union (EU), further enhancing problems for the cash-strapped country.
–With inputs from PTI, Reuters
