ISLAMABAD – Pakistan will develop a strategy to avoid being put on a globalterror financing watchlist, the finance minister said Monday, after Chinaand Saudi Arabia deserted Islamabad over the issue at a recent meeting inParis.
Members of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an anti money-launderingwatchdog based in the French capital, voted last week to place Pakistan onits grey list of nations which are not doing enough to combat terrorfinancing in June, a diplomatic source told AFP.
That gives Pakistan three months to make enough changes to avoid beinglisted, which could hamper some foreign investment and further strainrelations with Washington, where officials have put increasing pressure onPakistan over its alleged support for militant safe havens.
“We will start meeting on the issue of FATF after March 1 to see what canwe do on this and what strategy we can devise,” finance minister Rana AfzalKhan told AFP, adding that Pakistan has not yet received a list of actionsit needs to implement.
Observers are doubtful that Pakistan can meet the requirements in time,however.
The move, which was not announced in FATF s statement at the close of thesix-day meeting, came after members had initially been unable to reach aconsensus, with Turkey, China and Saudi Arabia holding out, the diplomaticsource said.
That saw Pakistani foreign minister Khawaja Asif confidently tweet lastweek that Pakistan had avoided being grey-listed.
But amid a flurry of diplomatic activity a second vote was held, with theUS convincing Riyadh to change its vote and Beijing staying silent, thesource said.
The decision is a diplomatic blow to Islamabad s relationship with its”all-weather” friend China, which has invested billions in the country sinfrastructure, and Saudi Arabia, to which Pakistan sent some 1,000 troopsearlier this month.
“It shows that the people who are concerned about terror financing arepretty broad,” the diplomatic source told AFP.
Pakistan was previously on the list from 2012 until 2015.
Two diplomatic sources in Islamabad told AFP it was targeted again thisyear over its lack of action against Hafiz Saeed, the alleged mastermind ofthe 2008 Mumbai attacks, and his charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD).
JuD is believed to be a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, the militant groupblamed for the Mumbai attacks, which killed 166 people and broughtIslamabad and Delhi to the brink of nuclear war.
Saeed, who operates freely in Pakistan, has denied involvement.
This month Pakistan began seizing JuD assets and quietly amended itsanti-terror laws to bring them in line with the UN, a move observers saidwas in anticipation of the FATF decision.
Rumours of the move have rattled officials and businesses across Pakistan.
But there should be “no major impact” to the economy, said Yaseen Anwar,the former central bank governor who help get the country off the listthree years ago.
FATF is an inter-governmental body established in 1989 to help combatmoney-laundering and financing for extremists. – APP/AFP