Pakistan almost off FATF grey list

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 17

Pakistan is on the verge of getting removed from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) list after the body said on Friday that Islamabad had met all 34 items on two separate action plans.

The FATF will now schedule an on-site visit to verify the implementation and sustainability of the country’s money laundering and counter-terrorism financing measures before formally removing it from the list of countries requiring increased monitoring, also known as the grey list.

The FATF said Pakistan’s substantial completion of both its action plans showed that it had the necessary political commitment to sustain implementation and improvement in the future. “The FATF will continue to monitor the Covid situation and conduct an on-site visit at the earliest possible date,” a statement said. “Pakistan demonstrated that terror-financing investigations and prosecutions target senior leaders and commanders of United Nations-designated terrorist groups and that there is a positive upwards trend in the number of money laundering investigations and prosecutions being pursued in Pakistan,” it observed, adding that Pakistan also largely addressed its 2021 action plan ahead of the set times.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) decision was announced at a press conference after the conclusion of its four-day plenary session in Berlin. Pakistan has been on the grey list since June 2018 and its cause was helped by an anti-terrorism court that sent Lashkar-e-Toiba chief Hafiz Saeed to prison for 33 years on terrorism charges. “Another success of PTI govt. Thank You Imran Khan,” tweeted former human rights minister Shireen Mazari.

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