ISLAMABAD – A high-powered Pakistani delegation, headed by caretakerFinance Minister Dr Shamshad Akhtar, will leave for Paris today to attendthe Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meeting starting from June 24.
Finance Ministry officials said that Pakistan had already fulfilled fewdemands of FATF. They said that the delegation will seek time to fulfil allthe demands. Pakistan will brief about its action which the governmentpassed through Finance Bill 2018 with the approval of the Parliament fortaxing foreign jurisdictions and helping the country to curb moneylaundering under mutual assistance agreement with OECD and other bilateralcountries.The purpose of the plenary meeting is to ensure the adoption,implementation and enforcement of internationally accepted anti-moneylaundering and counterterrorist financing standards as set out in the FATFForty Recommendations and FATF Eight Special Recommendations.
The FATF meeting is scheduled to be held at Paris by end of this month fromJune 24 to 29, 2018 and Islamabad is making all-out efforts to avoidfurther downgrading having far-reaching repercussions for the economy.In abid to foil this move, the newly stalled Federal Minister for Finance DrShamshad Akhtar on Wednesday directed all authorities concerned to fillrequired existing gaps on administrative and legal fronts before attendingthis scheduled meeting.
“Yes, the Minister for Finance Dr Shamshad Akhtar has reviewed all legaland administrative steps taken by Islamabad to avoid slipping into categoryof grey list so proper homework will be done to achieve our desiredobjectives,” one top official of government confided after attending themeeting chaired by Minister of Finance on Wednesday.In a brief officialannouncement, the Ministry of Finance stated that Dr. Shamshad Akhtar,Minister for Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs, Statistics and PlanningDevelopment and Reforms chaired a meeting here at the Ministry of Financeto review different FATF related issues.
“There are some gaps identified at recently held deliberations at Bangkokfor finalising action plan against money laundering and terror financingand different steps are underway to bridge this gap,” said the official.
Following the events of 11 September 2001, the Asia Pacific Group (APG)expanded its scope to include the countering of terrorist financing. TheAPG is supported by a Secretariat, which serves as the focal point for itsactivities. The APG became an Associate Member of the FATF in 2006.