FATF continues to keep Pakistan in Grey List despite India's push to blacklist

Washington, Feb 22: The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the international terror financing and money-laundering watchdog, on Friday decided to continue to retain Pakistan in the grey list, despite Indiai's push to blacklist the neighbour over terror funding.

The decision to keep Pakistan in the 'grey list' was taken at the end of week-long meetings by the FATF in Paris on Friday.

After the Pulwama terror attack, India had reportedly made a strong case in front of the FATF against Pakistan's non-compliance in curbing terror funding and pressed the watchdog to keep its neighbouring nation on a terrorism financing watch list.

This could result in Pakistan being placed on the FATF's "blacklist", which entails sanctions and comprehensive monitoring - a fate currently restricted to only Iran and North Korea.

However, with the banning of Hafiz Mohammad Saeed linked Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and its charity wing - Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF), Pakistan hoped that it will succeed to remove its name from the grey list of Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in September this year.

The Paris-headquartered FATF is a global body created to counter terrorism financing and money laundering.

Earlier in June 2018, FAFT - a global terrorism financing and money laundering watchdog had officially placed Pakistan on its grey list, during a plenary meeting held in Paris, due to strategic deficiencies in its anti-money laundering and terrorism financing regime.

FATF argued that Pakistan had failed to act against terror financing on its soil. On January 27, 2017, Interior Ministry had placed JuD and FIF on its Watch List under section 11-D-(1) of Schedule II of Anti Terrorism Act, 1997. It was given a deadline of September 2019 to implement the conditions set by the FATF, failing which it will fall into the 'black list'.

The two other organisations including Ghulaman-e-Sahaba (GS) and Maymar Trust had also been placed on the Watch List in the same year. Total four organisations were on that list till Thursday.

What is FATF?

The FATF is an intergovernmental organisation responsible for designing and promoting global regulatory rules and standards aimed at curbing cross-border money laundering and terror financing. It was established by the G7 in 1989 and is headquartered in Paris. India has been a member of FATF since 2010.