Tighten laws against terror funding, FATF tells Pakistan

Islamabad, Feb 19: A global terror financing watchdog has asked Pakistan to further tighten its laws to bring individuals involved in money laundering and terror financing to task, media reports said on Tuesday.

The International Cooperation Review Group (ICRG), a sub-group of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), evaluated the performance of Pakistan during its ongoing meeting in Paris which would continue until February 21.

"The FATF has expressed satisfaction over the steps taken by Pakistan to curb terror financing and demanded that the country further tightens its laws to bring individuals involved in money laundering and terror financing to task," The Express Tribune newspaper reported.

Citing the recent conviction of Mumbai attack mastermind and Jamat-ud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed, the Pakistani officials said that the judicial system in the country was fully independent and the courts were taking decisions on merit, which were being implemented.

The Paris-based FATF observed substantial progress made by Pakistan in the implementation of 14 of the 27 recommendations about the country's anti-money laundering and combating financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) mechanism, Dunya News TV reported.

"Pakistan has adopted an effective strategy in the financial sector to curb terror financing and enhanced cooperation between institutions to combat transfer of funds to terrorists," it reported.

The meetings of Paris-based FATF began on Monday but the plenary session, which will decide whether to keep Pakistan on the grey list, begins on Wednesday.

Pakistan was placed on the 'grey list' by the FATF in June, 2018 and was given a plan of action to complete it by October, 2019 or face the risk of being placed on the 'black list' along with Iran and North Korea.

Pakistan needs 12 votes out of 39 to exit the 'grey list' and move to 'white list'. To avoid 'black list', it needs support of three countries. In the last month's FATF meeting in Beijing, Pakistan got support of Malaysia and Turkey besides FATF current chair China.

Local media suggested that FATF will make the final decision about Pakistan on Friday but it is likely to retain it on the current grey list.

In the previous FATF review held in October, it was found that while Pakistan has made significant improvements, but it will have to take "extra measures" for "complete" elimination of terror financing and money laundering.