Pakistan Should Continue to Be in FATF Grey List, Says Report

Karachi, February 15: Pakistan should continue to be in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) "grey list" on the upcoming Plenary Session scheduled in Paris from 21 February to 4 March this year, according to a media report.

Paris-based money-laundering watchdog, FATF placed Pakistan on the "grey list" in June 2018 for its failure to address the problem of terrorism financing.

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Since then, Pakistan's performance has been under periodic review. But every time, it is found to be deficient in its efforts, reported Islam Khabar.

In the last meeting of the FATF in October 2021, Pakistan was once again retained on the "grey list" because it failed to prosecute and confiscate the assets of United Nations-designated terrorists.

FATF officials had also noted that Pakistan was still failing to effectively implement the global FATF standard across several areas, creating a high risk of money laundering.

Commenting on the action plan devised in 2018 which focused on terror financing, the FATF President had said that Pakistan was still assessed to have largely addressed 26 out of 27 items, Islam Khabar reported.

"Pakistan has taken a number of important steps but needs to further demonstrate that investigations and prosecutions are being pursued against the senior leadership of UN-designated terror groups," he said.

Given this situation, Pakistan will once again present its case before the FATF when the body holds its Plenary Session in Paris from 21 February to 4 March 2022.

The main effort will be to convince the FATF that it has delivered on all the high-level commitments it had made, not just in terms of tightening the domestic laws and regulations but also in terms of successfully prosecuting and punishing people involved in money laundering and terror finance.

There is a simple reason for Pakistan being in the "grey list" that Pakistan's deep state, led by the ISI and the Army, is at the forefront of carrying out illegal terrorist activities and promoting terror globally.

The latest emerging news from the UK, which was published in Dawn on January 28, to know what Pakistan is up to.

A British-Pakistani man, Mohammed Gohir Khan has been charged for trying to assassinate the dissident blogger, Ahmad Waqass Goraya, based in the Netherlands.

This leads to the question of the reopening of enquiry into the death of Karima Baloch, an ardent campaigner for an independent Balochistan, whose body was found in a lake in Canada in December 2020.

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