Completion of FATF action plans 'great achievement': DG-ISPR

RAWALPINDI: The Director-General of Inter-Services Public Relations (DG-ISPR) said on Friday that the completion of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) anti-money laundering (AML) and combating financing of terrorism (CFT) action plans is a great achievement, ARY News quoted the military’s media wing on Friday.

The Director-General of Inter-Services Public Relations (DG-ISPR) said in a statement that the completion of the FATF action plans by Pakistan was ‘a monumental effort paving way for whitelisting’.

COAS Bajwa said, “Core cell at the General Headquarters (GHQ) which steered the national effort and civil-military team which synergised implementation of the action plan made it possible, making Pakistan proud.”

Completion of FATF AML /CFT action plans by Pak is a great achievement. A monumental effort paving way 4 whitelisting. “Core cell @ GHQ which steered the national effort & civil – military team which synergised implementation of action plan made it possible, making Pak proud”COAS

— DG ISPR (@OfficialDGISPR) June 17, 2022

Key development

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has acknowledged that Pakistan has  “substantially completed its two action plans”, saying that the watchdog will now schedule an on-site visit to verify the implementation of the measures.

However, Pakistan has not been formally removed from the FATF’s grey list. In a statement, the watchdog acknowledged that Pakistan has completed both its action plans, covering 34 items and said this showed the necessary political commitment was in place to sustain implementation and improvement in the future.

READ: FATF REPEATEDLY PRAISED WORK OF PTI GOVT: IMRAN KHAN

“The FATF will continue to monitor the Covid-19 situation and conduct an on-site visit at the earliest possible date to verify the implementation and sustainability of the country’s money laundering and counter-terrorism financing measures,” it added.

The FATF also acknowledged Pakistan continued political commitment to combating both terrorist financing and money laundering, which it said had led to significant progress.

“Pakistan demonstrated that terror financing investigations and prosecutions target senior leaders and commanders of UN designated terrorist groups and that there is a positive upwards trend in the number of money laundering investigations and prosecutions being pursued in Pakistan, in line with Pakistan’s risk profile,” it added.

The financial watchdog noted that Pakistan has also largely addressed its 2021 action plan ahead of the set times.