Indian ulterior motives failed to blacklist Pakistan in FATF: Awan

ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting, Firdous Ashiq Awan, has said that the ulterior motives of India to blacklist Pakistan on the forum of Financial Action Task Force (FATF), ARY News reported on Sunday.

Firdous Ashiq Awan, in the series of message on a social media website, said that the FATF forum’s praises to the Pakistani authorities for its steps to curb money laundering and terrorism were proofs of its acceptance for the federal government’s sincere efforts. Pakistan aims to take more steps in this regards, she added.

She elaborated that the Indian government was attempting to blacklist Pakistan at the international forum, however, Prime Minister Imran Khan has continued bringing the positive image of the country before the world through his sincere efforts.

Read: Pakistan to remain on FATF’s grey list until Feb 2020

The special assistant highlighted that the new generations of those opposed the formation of Pakistan are now creating hurdles for the government in the steps being taken to stabilise the country.

“Pakistan is currently in grey list and the next few months are very important. In the current scenario, whether the Maulana [Fazlur Rehman, the supremo of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F)] is willing to dent the image of Pakistan and its nation by symbolising it with terrorism through the party’s militia and [armed] groups.”

Earlier on Friday, Acknowledging the country’s recent improvements, Financial Action Task Force (FATF) had formally announced that Pakistan will remain on its grey list till February 2020.

The global watchdog while recognizing Pakistan’s progress towards money laundering and terror financing, said: “The FATF strongly urges Pakistan to swiftly complete its full action plan by February 2020.”

Read: Hammad Azhar says Pakistan to come out of FATF’s grey list in February 2020

“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,” the statement cautioned.

“Since June 2018, when Pakistan made a high-level political commitment to work with the FATF and the Asia-Pacific Group (APG) to strengthen its anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terror financing (CTF) regime and to address its strategic counter-terrorist financing-related deficiencies, Pakistan has made progress towards improving its AML/CFT regime, including the recent development of its money laundering / terror financing risk assessment,” the FATF conceded.

“Pakistan should continue to work on implementing its action plan to address its strategic deficiencies,” the statement added.