No chance of being blacklisted by FATF: Pakistan
Karachi, Feb 27: There was no possibility of Pakistan being blacklisted by the FATF as it has made "significant progress", a senior minister claimed on Friday, a day after the global anti-money laundering watchdog retained the country on its "Grey List", citing "serious deficiencies" on its part in checking terror-financing.
Addressing the media after the Financial Action Task Force, the Paris-based global body against money-laundering and terror-financing, announced to keep Pakistan on its Grey List until June, Minister for Industries Hammad Azhar said that Islamabad achieved the targets despite the challenging timeline given to it.
"There was no possibility of Pakistan being blacklisted by the FATF," Azhar, who led Pakistani delegation at the plenary as the chairman of the FATF Coordination Committee, said.
Pakistan remains on FATF 'grey list’, given time till June to implement full action plan
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"At the previous plenary, FATF countries and the FATF secretariat said that blacklisting was not an option because the country has achieved significant progress," he said.
Azhar claimed that the world was "appreciative" of Pakistan's effort to complete the 27-point action plan of the FATF.
"As you have seen, today the FATF itself is saying that we are 90 per cent close to achieving this goal," he said, adding that the remaining three point out of 27 would be completed soon.
The FATF has retained Pakistan on the "Grey List", giving it another four months to remove the deficiencies in three remaining points of the "action plan".
After its virtual plenary on Thursday, Marcus Pleyer, president of FATF, said the deadline given to Pakistan has already expired and asked Islamabad to address their concerns "as quickly as possible".
There is "serious deficiency" on the part of Pakistan in checking terror-financing and the country is yet to demonstrate taking action against the UN-designated terrorists and their associates, he said.
Pleyer said Pakistan continues to remain on the "increased monitoring list", another name for the "Grey List".
He said the courts in Pakistan must mete out "effective, decisive and proportionate" punishment to those involved in terrorism, a statement which comes close on the heels of the acquittal of terrorist Omar Saeed Sheikh, the main accused in the 2002 murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl, by Pakistan's Supreme Court.
Among the UN-designated terrorists are India's most wanted terrorists such as Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed and the outfit's operational commander, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.
Pakistan-Turkey radical Islamic nexus at FATF
Azhar,
Saeed
and
Lakhvi
are
most
wanted
terrorists
in
India
for
their
involvement
in
numerous
terrorist
acts,
including
the
26/11
Mumbai
terror
attacks
and
the
2019
bombing
of
a
CRPF
bus
in
Jammu
and
Kashmir's
Pulwama.
Pleyer
said
Pakistan
must
complete
three
unfulfilled
tasks
and
once
that
is
done,
the
FATF
will
verify
and
take
a
decision
on
its
present
status
in
the
next
plenary
to
be
held
in
June.
Pakistan
was
placed
on
the
"Grey
List"
by
the
FATF
in
June,
2018
and
was
given
a
plan
of
action
to
be
completed
by
October,
2019.
Since
then
the
country
continues
to
be
on
that
list
due
to
its
failure
to
comply
with
the
FATF
mandates.
The FATF is an inter-governmental body established in 1989 to combat money-laundering, terror-financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system.
It currently has 39 members, including two regional organisations -- the European Commission and the Gulf Cooperation Council. India is a member of the FATF consultations and its Asia Pacific Group.