Pakistan Remains in FATF Grey List Until June; Terror Funding Watchdog Cites 'Serious Deficiencies'

Islamabad, February 25: The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) kept Pakistan in its "Grey List" citing serious deficiencies in checking terror financing. The FATF on Thursday said that Pakistan would remain under "increased monitoring" when it comes to terror financing and money-laundering cases. The terror watchdog asked Islamabad to demonstrate the effective implementation of targeted financial sanctions against all 1267 and 1373 designated terrorists. Serious Deficiency on Part of Pak in Checking Terror Financing, Will Continue to Remain on Increased Monitoring List: FATF.

The FATF meeting began on Monday in Paris. FATF President Dr Marcus Pleyer said that there were still some serious deficiencies that Pakistan needs to address. "Pakistan should continue to work on implementing the three remaining items in its action plan to address its strategically important deficiencies, namely by: demonstrating that TF investigations and prosecutions target persons and entities acting on behalf or at the direction of designated persons or entities," the FATF said in a statement. Pakistan to Remain in FATF's Grey List Till February 2020.

Pleyer acknowledged that Pakistan has made "significant progress". Notably, The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force had placed Pakistan on the grey list in June 2018 and asked Islamabad to implement a plan of action to curb money laundering and terror financing by the end of 2019 but the deadline was extended later on due to COVID-19 pandemic.

In the last plenary held in October 2020, the FATF concluded that Pakistan would continue in its “grey list” till February 2021 as it had failed to fulfil six out of 27 obligations, including failure to take action against two of India's most wanted terrorists – Jaish-e Mohammad chief Maulana Masood Azhar and Jamaat-ud-Dawah head Hafiz Saeed. Notably, Azhar and Saeed are most wanted terrorists in India for their involvement in numerous terrorist acts, including 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks and bombing of a CRPF bus at Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir last year.