ISLAMABAD: A plenary meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) tobe held from June 24th to 29th, 2018 in Paris would decide whether to placePakistan on the grey list or not.
Authorities in Islamabad have gone all out to ensure that the countryavoids being put on the grey list, which could have ramifications for theeconomy, reported an English daily*.*
The newly appointed caretaker Federal Minister for Finance Dr ShamshadAkhtar instructed all relevant authorities to fill in required gaps on thelegal and administrative fronts before going to this FATF meeting.
An official shared Ms Akhtar had evaluated all administrative and legalsteps initiated by Islamabad to ensure it doesn’t slip into grey listcategory and due work would be done to ensure to achieve the desiredobjectives.
A meeting was held at Ministry of Finance on Wednesday to evaluate variousFATF related issues and was presided over by interim Finance Minister DrShamshad Akhtar.
An official source disclosed Pakistan’s high-powered delegation would beparticipating in this forthcoming plenary session of FATF from June 24th to29th, which would ultimately decide whether to place the country ongreylist or not.
The caretaker federal minister for information and law Barrister Ali Zafarsaid the interim government would undertake all efforts to ensure thatPakistan doesn’t get blacklisted.
He added he was confident the current legal regime of the country wascompliant with global anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorfinancing (CTF) rules.
Mr Zafar stated the finance ministry required some time for finalization ofthe plan and would then provide a final presentation to the federal cabinet.
The caretaker federal minister for information and law said the interimgovernment would make efforts to resolve all problems whilst remaining inthe ambit of the Constitution.
According to sources, the fresh plan would hinge around four areas ofconcern which were shared by the Asia Pacific Group (APG) on moneylaundering and the FATF.
FATF is seeking implementation of 27 recommendations from Pakistan’s end toexhibit progress in these four areas.
One of them is the improvement of supervisions of the AML and CTF, reiningin illicit cross-border movement of currency via Chaman and Torkham,improving prosecution in AML and CTF cases and ensuring adherence to UnitedNations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions.
The caretaker law minister said it was in Pakistan’s interest to ensureimprovement in areas of prosecution and probing in money laundering andterrorism financing cases.
In recently held deliberations in Bangkok, some gaps were pointed out forfinalizing action plan against money laundering and terror financing andvarious steps were being taken to fill this gap, said an official.
During the meeting, Pakistan would provide details about the actions it hadformulated to combat money laundering and terror financing which was donevia the passing of Finance Bill 2018.
Finance Bill 2018 would allow taxing foreign jurisdictions and a mutualassistance agreement with OECD and other bilateral countries would aidPakistan in reining in money laundering.
The plenary meeting is conducted for ensuring implementation, adoption andexecution of internationally accepted anti-money laundering andcounter-terrorist financing standards which are laid down in FATF eightspecial recommendations and forty recommendations.