FATF Keeps Pakistan in Grey List Until June 2021

On Thursday, The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) proposed that they are going to evaluate Pakistan’s progress at the special plenary session in June 2021 till then Pakistan is on their grey list.

After FATF four-day virtual meeting session, the President of FATF Dr. Marcus Pleyer conducted a press conference covering the results of the virtual meeting. The decision was declared in the press conference to keep Pakistan on the grey list until further notice.

Pleyer added that although, Islamabad has made important strides but Pakistan in all, will remain under surveillance as there are some critical weaknesses that need to be addressed to stop terrorism financing.

FATF Keeps Pakistan in Grey List Until June 2021

According to the strategy accepted by Pakistan, there are three remaining points out of 27 points that need to be completely resolved. Despite the progress made by Pakistan, President said that Pakistan is highly encouraged to execute the plan properly. It cannot be left incomplete if Pakistan wants to be completely terrorism-free.

He further insisted that Pakistan must strengthen its strategies and used strong assets to improve inspection of the communities and organizations funding terrorists. Pakistan should prove that the penalties declared by the court are reliable. Once, Pakistan is able to fulfill all these requirements then FATF will validate these actions and members will vote in favor of the country.

In response to a question asked by an Indian journalist, Pleyer said that FATF is not responsible to inspect any country, their duty is to analyze the whole anti-money laundering system. They cannot shift their duty just because of any serious concern. FATF can only insist Pakistan complete the action plan and that is what the most essential task is.

FATF president stated that Pakistan is working as per the commitment to unveil illegal finance comities. Pakistan can’t afford to remain on the blacklist as it will affect the country in many ways. Just as Pakistan completes its action plan, the viability will be checked by the regulatory body and will be discussed in the plenary session which is going to be held in June.

Meanwhile, in the press conference, the FATF president refused to comment on any particular event restating that when the right time will come India will also be investigated in the same way.

Pakistan should not stop working on its action plan addressing the three leftover items. The FATF keeps tracking the substantial improvements made by Pakistan. Up till now, Pakistan has dealt primarily with 24 out of 27 items in the action plan and will continue to achieve success by focusing on the action plan.

Since the deadline set to complete the action plan was over still, FATF is encouraging the country to complete the plan by extending the deadline till June.

Responding to the FATF announcement, Federal Minister Hammad Azhar clarifies that nearly 90 percent of the items in its existing FATF action plan have been completed covering the major 24 points and the leftover three points are under the completion process.

Source: Dawn