ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Foreign Ministry responds over media reports of FATF blacklisting Pakistan.
The Ministry of Finance on Friday rejected reports in the Indian media stating that Pakistan had been blacklisted by the Asia Pacific Group (APG) of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
“Media reports circulating about Pakistan being blacklisted by APG are incorrect and baseless,” a spokesperson from the ministry said, adding that a press release would follow shortly.
The APG in its meeting during the week of 18-23 August adopted Pakistan’s third mutual evaluation report.
A statement by the APG read, “during the week, APG members adopted six significant mutual reports. The reports – for China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Pakistan, the Philippines and Solomon Islands – were analysed and discussed in detail over two full days and will now be subject to post-plenary quality and consistency review prior to publication. Final publication on the APG website is expected in early October 2019.”
A press release by Pakistan’s Ministry of Finance stated that the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering adopted Pakistan’s third mutual evaluation report which covered the period from February to October 2018 and identified a number of areas where further actions were required to strengthen the AML/CFT framework.
The report did not cover areas in which the Pakistani government made substantial progress since October 2018.