FATF can anytime blacklist Pak for terror financing, says Rajnath Singh

New Delhi, Oct 1: International money laundering watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) can anytime blacklist Pakistan for terror financing, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Tuesday. In August, the Asia Pacific Group of the FATF had put Pakistan in a terror 'blacklist' for its failure to curb funnelling of funds to groups responsible for attacks in India.

"International agency FATF can blacklist Pakistan for terror financing," he said at the Defence Accounts Department Day event. Paris-based FATF is an inter-governmental body that promotes effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the international financial system.

Singh observed that national security has become a multi-dimensional concept, economic, strength, food and energy security and environmental protection are its key aspects. It is prudent for an emerging economy like India to have good financial management, Singh said.

"Our neighbour is a living example of financial mismanagement," he said. The Defence minister said excessive militarisation and focus on wrong policies without financial prudence have resulted in a situation that Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was not able to make arrangements for a flight to attend a global event.

Singh was apparently referring to Khan taking a commercial aircraft when a special jet given to him by the Saudi Arabian government developed a technical glitch minutes after taking off from New York airport last week. Khan, who was to return to Pakistan following his seven-day trip to the US to attend the 74th session of United Nations General Assembly, had to return to New York after the plane developed a technical snag minutes after taking off from the Kennedy International Airport.

Singh said the Defence Budget for 2019-20 is nearly 4.5 lakh crore, which is nearly 2.3 per cent of India's Gross domestic products (GDP) . He said the Defence Accounts Department (DAD)takes care of the pensions of 31 lakh pensioners.

Singh lauded the DAD for implementation of One Rank, One Pension (OROP) professionally. To help pensioners, a call centre has also been established and the 19 'defence pension courts' organised in 2018-19 have yielded success, the Defence minister said.