FATF retains Pakistan on its grey list

Financial Action Task Force (FATF) formally announced on Friday that Pakistan will remain on its grey list till October 2021, ARY News reported.

The terror financing watchdog has lauded the country’s significant progress in implementing 26 of the 27 action items in the 2018 action plan.

Addressing a press conference after the June 21-25 plenary meeting, FATF President Dr Marcus Pleyer said, “The Pakistani government has made substantial progress in making its counter-terrorist financing systems stronger and more effective. It has largely addressed 26 out of 27 items on the action plan it first committed to in June 2018,” he said.

The FATF has also given another six-point action plan pertaining to the Mutual Evaluation Report (MER) Process to Islamabad.

“The FATF encourages Pakistan to continue to make progress to address as soon as possible the one remaining CFT (countering the financing of terrorism)-related item by demonstrating that TF (terror financing) investigations and prosecutions target senior leaders and commanders of UN designated terrorist groups,” reads the statement issued after the fourth Plenary of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

The country has to work towards complete implementations till the next Financial Action Task Force (FATF) plenary meet that will take place from 17th to October 22.

A couple of days ago Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that Pakistan has fulfilled almost all the technical requirements of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to get off its grey list.

Pakistan had been given a 27-point action plan to fulfill. Work on 26 points has been completed, he added.

Foreign Minister Qureshi said there is no justification to keep Pakistan on the grey list after the country has fulfilled the Paris-based watchdog’s all requirements. India wants to use this forum for political purpose, he cautioned.

In February this year, FATF decided to keep Pakistan on its grey list, giving it four more months – June 20, 2021 – to complete its full action plan.

Read More: NO JUSTIFICATION TO KEEP PAKISTAN IN GREY LIST AFTER COMPLIANCE: QURESHI

It noted that Pakistan has made progress across all action plan items and it has now largely addressed 24 out of 27 items of the action plan.

The watchdog further noted Pakistan not only barred the movement of all the listed men in the global list of terrorists but also kept a check on their accounts and channels.

In October last year, FATF noted that Pakistan fully met the targets laid down in 21 of the 27 items of the Action Plan and asked the county to achieve full progress on the Action Plan by February 2021.