Pakistan likely to get four-month breather to fulfil FATF obligations: Dawn

The FATF in October decided to keep Pakistan on its ‘Grey’ list for failure to curb funnelling of funds to terror groups Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed and others

February 21, 2020 12:15 pm | Updated December 03, 2021 07:04 am IST - Islamabad

If not removed off the Financial Action Task Force ‘Grey List’ by April, Pakistan may move to a blacklist of countries that face severe economic sanctions, such as Iran. | File

If not removed off the Financial Action Task Force ‘Grey List’ by April, Pakistan may move to a blacklist of countries that face severe economic sanctions, such as Iran. | File

Pakistan is likely to get four months to fulfil requirements of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and secure an exit from its grey list.

A decision to this effect was likely to be taken by the FATF on Friday after the conclusion of the February 16-21 group meetings and plenary in Paris. The Pakistani delegation to the meetings was led by Revenue Minister Hammad Azhar.

Also read | China has realised it cannot support Pak. all the time: Army Chief

FATF blacklisting may affect Pakistan’s capital inflows: IMF report

The FATF in October decided to keep Pakistan on its ‘Grey’ list for failure to curb funnelling of funds to terror groups Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed and others.

Also read | Masood Azhar and family missing, Pakistan tells terror financing watchdog FATF

If not removed off the list by April, Pakistan may move to a blacklist of countries that face severe economic sanctions, such as Iran .

According to a report in the Dawn newspaper, the international terror financing watchdog was set to give Pakistan time till June 2020 to achieve full compliance with its 27-point action plan and secure exit from the FATF grey list.

Also read | Pakistan no longer a safe haven for terror groups: Imran Khan

Sources from Paris said that Pakistan was found fully or close to fully compliant on more than half of the 27 targets.

We are satisfied with the progress so far. There was no case at all for blacklisting us, a source was quoted as saying in the report.

Pakistan is already finalising major amendments to at least a dozen of its laws to meet the FATF requirements by June this year and sentenced Mumbai attack mastermind and JuD chief Hafiz Saeed to 11 years in two cases of terror financing on February 12.

Saeed, a UN designated terrorist whom the U.S. has placed a $10 million bounty on, was arrested on July 17 in the terror financing cases. The 70-year-old fiery cleric is lodged at the high-security Kot Lakhpat jail here.

Based on these steps, the country’s performance would be judged in the next FATF plenary in October 2020, the report said.

Also read | Editorial: Black and grey: On terror funding and Pakistan

Pakistan submitted a 650-page review report to the FATF on January 8. The report was submitted in response to 150 questions raised by the FATF regarding new Pakistani policies on money laundering. The report outlined the steps taken by Pakistan between October 2019 to January 2020 to implement the group’s recommendations.

In January, Pakistan urged the U.S. to support its bid to exit from FATF’s grey list ahead of a key meeting of the international terror financing watchdog in Beijing in which Islamabad’s efforts to adopt stricter laws against terror financing and money laundering were scrutinised.

Top News Today

Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.