FATF meet to decide Pakistan’s financial fate

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 6

The global Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will virtually meet later this month to deliberate on Pakistan’s compliance with international money laundering and anti-terrorist financing norms.

Sources here said as the ultimate Indian aim of getting Pakistan into the FATF blacklist may not be possible in the current global circumstances. A more realistic target is ensure that Pakistan remains under the lens by being kept under the grey list.

A beneficiary of successive grace periods, Pakistan at its last assessment had missed 13 of the 27 action points suggested by the FATF. Islamabad has claimed that it has fulfilled the remaining action points and submitted reports to this effect both to FATF and its regional chapter.

India has been straining to get Pakistan slotted in the “black list” of “high risk jurisdictions” which not only imputes global blackballing of a nation but grave difficulties for the country concerned to access funding from international banks.

India has said despite the paperwork done at FATF by Pakistan, the fact remains that it provides active support and sanctuary to internationally listed terror groups such as Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT). It has also pointed out that Pakistan issued notifications listing nearly 100 terrorists and entities who had been indicted by the UNSC but the reality was that it was also sheltering many of them.

Pakistan’s all-weather friend China is expected to provide Islamabad support even though it no longer holds the chair of FATF. The US, which has weighed against Pakistan at several FAT plenary meetings, may not push the envelope because of the delicate stage of the Afghanistan peace talks. Pakistan needs to get the nod of at least one-third of FATF members to extricate itself from the grey list.