By our correspondent
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is just ‘one step away’ from being removed from the grey list of the FATF — the international watchdog monitoring money laundering, terror financing, and other threats to global financial networks, after the had substantially completed its two action plans, covering 34 items, as part of a bid to get off the list on which it has been since 2018.
The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force said an on-site visit was justified to confirm that reforms had started taking shape and were being continued, as well as that the obligatory political commitment was there for the future.
“Pakistan is not being removed from the grey list today. The country will be removed from the list if it successfully passes the onsite visit,” FATF president Dr Marcus Pleyer told a news conference.
“The FATF will continue to monitor the Covid-19 situation and conduct an on-site visit at the earliest possible date,” said the watchdog’s head.
The global anti-terror financing body said that since June 2018 — when Pakistan had made a high-level political commitment to work with the FATF — Islamabad continued its political commitment to combating both terror financing and money laundering.
“The moves, resultantly, led to significant progress.”
“In particular, Pakistan demonstrated that terror financing investigations and prosecutions target senior leaders and commanders of UN-designated terrorist groups and that there is a positive upwards trend in the number of money laundering investigations and prosecutions being pursued in Pakistan, in line with Pakistan’s risk profile. In addition, Pakistan also largely addressed its 2021 action plan ahead of the set times,” the FATF top official said.
Pleyer further said an inspection by the FATF in Pakistan would take place before October, and that a formal announcement on the country’s removal would follow.
According to a statement by Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the FATF reviewed Pakistan’s progress in countering terror financing during a four-day meeting this week and “acknowledged the completion” of its action plans.
It said a visit to Pakistan was authorised as a final step toward exiting from the grey list.
Imran Khan, former prime minister and PTI chairman took no time in taking the credit for this milestone.
“Pak was nominated for grey listing by FATF in Feb 2018 & had to complete the most challenging action plan ever given to any jurisdiction. When my govt took over, we faced dire prospect of Blacklisting by that body. Our past compliance history with FATF was also not favourable,” Khan said in one of his many Twitter posts regarding the development.
“I constituted a FATF Coordination Committee headed by key minister Hammad Azhar. The committee had representation from all govt departments & security agencies relevant to our FATF action plan. The officers worked day & night in the first instance to avoid blacklisting.”
In another Twitter message, he wrote,” FATF repeatedly praised work & the political will my govt demonstrated. We not only averted blacklisting, but also completed 32 out of 34 action items. We submitted compliance report on remaining 2 items in April based on which FATF now declared Pak’s Action Plan as completed.”
“I am confident that prerequisite onsite visit of FATF team to confirm completed work on our action plan will pass successfully too. Hammad Azhar, members of his FATF coord committee & officers who worked on this task performed exceptionally well. The whole country is proud of you,” said Khan in his final relevant Twitter post on Friday night.
Attributing Pakistan’s stellar performance on the FATF front to party chief Imran Khan, Hammad Azhar, a PTI leader and former finance minister, also used Twitter to say that Pakistan’s removal from the list was now just a formality.
In his reaction, army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, said it was a “great achievement,” and added that the military had dedicated a special task force to ensure the FATF’s tasks are implemented.
As Pakistan was technically still on the FATF grey list, the risks remain.
According to an independent Pakistani think-tank, Tabadlab, the country’s economy has suffered losses worth $38 billion in the last 14 years because of being greylisted by the FATF.
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