ISLAMABAD – Pakistan’s relations with the US have deteriorated drasticallyin the past year and in his first tweet of 2018, President Donald Trumpsaid Pakistan gave “lies and deceit” in return for American funding.

FATF removed the nuclear-armed nation after three years in 2015 from a listof countries which are subjected to regular monitoring.

Being placed on the FATF list may impede Pakistan’s access to globalmarkets at a time when its foreign reserves are dwindling and externaldeficits are widening ahead of national elections in July.

Yet, during the previous period under FATF monitoring, Pakistan managed tonegotiate an International Monetary Fund bailout and continued to tap theinternational bond market.

“Gradually the US is coming up with more pressure,” Shamoon Tariq, theStockholm-based vice chief investment officer at Tundra Fonder AB, saidbefore the decision. If the US “puts more pressure on the World Bank andIMF on future funding, that would be a real challenge.”

Last week, Pakistan vigorously tried to avoid inclusion to the list andsaid the US had voiced concerns about the freedom of Hafiz Saeed, and hisorganisations operated in the country.

Last week, Pakistan announced that it changed a law and now allowed itssecurity forces to take action against groups on the UN Security Councillist — such as Saeed’s charities which are alleged fronts for militantgroup Lashkar-e-Taiba.

It also seized dozens of offices, buildings, seminaries and ambulancesbelonging to Saeed’s Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation.