The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is expected to announce later todaywhether Pakistan has done enough to exit the grey-list as it wraps up itsfour-day plenary meeting.
The FATF president will give a press briefing on the outcomes of the FATFplenary at 4:30 pm Pakistan time.
Earlier last week, the Foreign Office (FO) spokesman had said that Pakistanhad made substantive progress on the remaining six items of the FATF actionplan and was duly acknowledged by the wider FATF membership.
The FATF had placed Pakistan on the grey list in June 2018 and placed 27conditions for review for complying in one year, till September 2019.Pakistan was so far given three extensions of three months each, every timeto comply with the 27-point action plan.
Until the last assessment, Pakistan was found deficient in acting againstthe organisations allegedly linked to the terror groups listed by the UNSecurity Council, prosecuting and convicting banned individuals andtackling smuggling of narcotics and precious stones.
Recently, the authorities had taken further steps including the prosecutionof Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed and his associates in terror financingcases.
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Meanwhile, a new research paper published by an independent think-tank,Tabadlab, has stated that Pakistan sustained a staggering $38 billioneconomic losses due to FATF’s decision to place the country on its greylist thrice since 2008.
The losses are worked out on the basis of reduction in consumptionexpenditures, exports, and foreign direct investment (FDI).
The paper, titled ‘Bearing the cost of global politics — the impact of FATFgrey-listing on Pakistan’s economy’ by Dr Naafey Sardar, underlines thatthe decision of placing Pakistan on the grey list in 2018 appears to beagainst the FATF norms, as, normally, the decision materialises by takinginto consideration the Mutual Evaluation Report (MER) of the respectivecountry.