ISLAMABAD, October 18: The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Friday decided to retain Pakistan on the grey list after Islamabad could not fully implement the 27-point Action Plan, providing the country another four months to complete the remaining actions. The FATF acknowledged Pakistan’s efforts only on five agreed action points but did not accept Pakistan’s position on another five points related to terrorism financing and risks posed by various proscribed organisations. The efforts against remaining 17 points were partially acknowledged by the global body.
“While noting recent improvements, the FATF again expresses serious concerns with the overall lack of progress by Pakistan to address its TF risks.”
The FATF’s decision to retain Pakistan on a list of countries whose terrorism financing and money laundering laws and regulations are found to be deficient is in line with the government’s expectations.
“The FATF strongly urges Pakistan to swiftly complete its full action plan by February 2020,” it said in a statement. “Otherwise, should significant and sustainable progress not be made across the full range of its action plan by the next Plenary, the FATF will take action.”
There were remote chances that the FATF would blacklist Pakistan due to the commitments given by Pakistan’s civilian and military leadership to plug loopholes in combating terrorism financing and money laundering frameworks.
Although, the government remained unable to comply with majority of the agreed actionable points, it did make efforts to improve the situation.
In February last year, the FATF had decided to place Islamabad on grey list with effect from June 2018. Pakistan had been given 27-point ambitious action plan that required it to completely choke terror financing and money laundering, dismantle terrorists’ sanctuaries, and make the banking and non-banking financial regulations more stringent.
The government had made improvements in these areas but fell short of the benchmarks set by the global body.
The areas where Pakistan showed significant improvements were related to targeted financial sanctions, listing of proscribed organisations and improvement in border control systems.
The FATF Plenary meeting was held in Paris from October 13-18, 2019. The Pakistan delegation was led by Minister for Economic Affairs Division Hammad Azhar. The FATF meeting considered Pakistan’s progress report on the FATF Action Plan and Pakistan’s APG Mutual Evaluation report (MER).
“Pakistan’s delegation reaffirmed its political commitment to fully implement the Action Plan,” according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Finance after the FATF announcement. It added the Plenary meeting also decided to maintain status quo on the FATF Action Plan and allow the usual 12 months observation period for the APG MER.
The delegation also held sideline meetings with various delegations and briefed them about the progress made by Pakistan on the FATF Action Plan and steps taken for strengthening its AML/CFT framework.-Agencies
