NEW DELHI, June 25: Pakistan has again failed to convince the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) hat it was doing enough to eliminate terrorism from its soil and get out of its grey list. Assessing Pakistan’s efforts to plug terror financing, the FATF on Friday announced that the country would remain on “increased monitoring list,” also known as grey list, media reports said.
Making the announcement, the financial watchdog said although Pakistan made significant progress, the key issue which is yet to be addressed is the country’s failure to take action against UN listed terrorists like Hafiz Saeed, Masood Azhar and others. “Pakistan has made significant progress and it has largely addressed 26 out of 27 measures. In 2019, the regional partner of FATF identified problems in Pakistan’s anti-money laundering measures. But since then it has improved. There remains risk of money laundering and subsequently FATF had discussions with Pakistan,” media reports quoting FATF President Marcus Pleyer said.
The announcement came after five days of the plenary session that involved discussions on key issues to strengthen global action against financial flows that fuel crime and terrorism.
The Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering had retained Pakistan on “enhanced follow-up” status for outstanding requirements, and Islamabad will continue to report back to it on the country’s progress to strengthen its implementation of anti-money laundering and combating financing terror measures.
Pakistan was put on the grey list by the Paris-based FATF in June 2018, and the country has been struggling to come out of it. The Asia Pacific Group (APG) is a regional affiliate of FATF.
The second Follow-Up Report (FUR) on Mutual Evaluation of Pakistan released by APG also downgraded Pakistan on one criteria.
The FATF statement said they would hear the progress made by some jurisdictions identified as presenting a risk to the financial system.
While New Delhi had been pushing for its blacklisting for the last three years, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, while giving an account of Pakistan’s recent progress, had said FATF had no justification to keep the country on its grey list.
As Pakistan continues to be on FATF grey list, it would be very difficult for the country to get financial aid from the IMF, the World Bank and the European Union, making its financial condition even more precarious.
(Manas Dasgupta)