FATF all set to decide on Pakistan's grey list status in virtual meeting

Islamabad, Oct 05: The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is all set to decide on Pakistan's grey list status in a virtual meeting scheduled later this month.

Earlier, the Paris-based global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog had placed Pakistan on the grey list in June 2018 and asked Islamabad to implement a plan of action to curb money laundering and terror financing by the end of 2019 but the deadline was extended later on due to COVID-19 pandemic.

Seeking to wriggle out of the FATF's grey list, Pakistan in August imposed financial sanctions on 88 banned terror groups and their leaders, including 26/11 Mumbai attack mastermind and Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar and underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.

It is reportedly said that the virtual FATF plenary scheduled for October 21-23 will decide if Pakistan should be excluded from its grey list, based on a review of Islamabad's performance to meet global commitments and standards on fight against Money Laundering and Terror Financing (ML&TF).

The meeting was earlier scheduled in June but Islamabad got an unexpected breather after the global watchdog against financial crimes temporarily postponed all mutual evaluations and follow-up deadlines in the wake of grave health risk following COVID-19 pandemic.

In February, the FATF gave Pakistan, which missed 13 targets, a four-month grace period to complete its 27-point action plan against ML&TF committed with the international community.

In July, Pakistan's Senate unanimously approved two bills related to the tough conditions set by FATF. In August, Parliament's lower house passed four FATF-related bills as part of the efforts by Pakistan to move from the FATF's grey list to the white list.