Three 'close friend' countries vote in favour of Pakistan against FATF downgrade: Report
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*NEW DELHI* : Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global watchdog for terror financing and money laundering, meets in Paris for its crucial plenary session on Pakistan.
Vote to downgrade Islamabad to the black list due to its poor compliance on measures to tackle terror funding at the FATF to be held.
The FATF is currently headed by China and has Malaysia, Turkey as well as Saudi Arabia are its members. China, Malaysia and Turkey to vote against a downgrade for close friend Pakistan.
"The APG has recommended that Pakistan should be downgraded from grey to black. But the APG is not empowered to downgrade, which comes from the FATF," strategic expert and Pakistan watcher Jai Kumar Verma told IANS.
At the FATF meeting, it will require a minimum of three votes to prevent a blacklisting. "At the FATF, if the three countries -- China, Malaysia and Turkey -- say that Pakistan should not be downgraded from grey to black, then it will not.
"And the three countries will vote that Pakistan should not be downgraded to black," he added.
However, even remaining in the grey list will prove very costly for Pakistan. Its Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had in April said that Pakistan will face losses worth $10 billion annually if it remains in the 'grey list'.
