ISLAMABAD – Pakistan gives an embarassing blow to India in the FinancialAction Task Force joint group meeting in Beijing.
Pakistan’s economic team led by Minister for Economic Affairs, HammadAzhar, has won the first round as Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF)joint group meeting in Beijing has reportedly shown satisfaction over thecountry’s compliance report.
As per reports, no country other than India raised tough but mostlyirrelevant questions on the compliance report in Beijing, and thereforecould not gather any support from the European or the American delegation.——————————
“The Pakistani team will standby to defend its report further if requiredto do so today (Thursday). If the joint group of FATF demanded any furtherdocuments or annexures of any point, the Pakistani side would be ready toreply,” the FATF was informed.
To get off the FATF grey list, the country’s next challenge will be tomuster diplomatic support for its efforts during the plenary meeting of thetask force scheduled for February 16 in Paris.
The country requires support from three countries to avoid the blacklistand 12 votes out of 39 to come off the grey list.——————————
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For Pakistan, US’s vote will be crucial to get off the grey list. PrimeMinister Imran Khan, during his recent interaction with the US PresidentDonald Trump, has also requested him to support the country in this regard.
“If Pakistan succeeds to muster the US support, chances of gettingwhitelisted will be bright,” said an official source privy to thedevelopment.
While there are chances that Pakistan finally gets whitelisted, there is athird scenario that the country prolongs its stay on the grey list foranother three to six months.
In October’s meeting, Pakistan was handed a 27-point agenda to comply with.Out of which, 5 to 6 instructions have been fully implemented while thecountry is showing significant progress in around 22 points, he said.
