Asia Pacific Group (APG) on Money Laundering has published results ofPakistan’s second Mutual Evaluation follow-up Report on 2 June 2021.
As per the report, Pakistan has achieved a compliant/largely compliantrating in 31 out of 40 FATF Recommendations in Technical Compliance. Theseresults prove the sincerity along with the resolve of the Government incomplying with FATF requirements.
These results are also a manifestation of the irreversibility andsustainability of the complete process in bringing Pakistan at par withGlobal AML/CFT standards. These results are the manifestation of a wholegovernment approach adopted to achieve the same. An upgrade of 21Recommendations within this short period of time remains unprecedented inFATF history, said a statement issued by the Ministry of Finance.
“This is the parallel scrutiny being undertaken at FATF besides our currentaction plan,” wrote Minister for Energy, Hammad Azhar, on his Twitter pageon Friday.——————————
He informed that this achievement of the upgrade of 20 criteria in lessthan two years is unprecedented in FATF history for any country.
“This outcome is a result of major legal reforms (14 federal + 3 provinciallaws with corresponding regulations),” he said, adding that it is also dueto the persistent efforts of the entire FATF team (20 ministries plusorganizations).
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FATF’s Mutual Evaluation Report (MER) of jurisdictions is assessed in twodomains i.e., Technical Compliance/Legal Instruments (40 FATFRecommendations) and Demonstration of Effectiveness (11 ImmediateOutcomes). Pakistan’s MER was adopted in October 2019 in which Pakistan wasrated compliant and largely complaint in 10 out of 40 FATF Recommendationsfor Technical Compliance.
After the adoption of MER, Pakistan was placed under Post ObservationPeriod by FATF which expired in February 2021. During the said period,Pakistan carried out major legal reforms with the enactment of 14 FederalLaws & 3 Provincial Laws along with relevant rules and regulations. Thelaws not only strengthened the systems in Pakistan but also brought insustainability. Pakistan submitted its report to FATF on its TechnicalCompliance on 1st October 2020.
APG has acknowledged that Pakistan has made notable progress in addressingthe Technical Compliance deficiencies identified in its MER and has beenre-rated compliant/largely compliant in 31 out of 40 FATF Recommendations.Pakistan has also submitted re-rating requests to APG on four morerecommendations in the next follow-up report which are under review by APG.The technical upgrades achieved will help manifest the achievement ofeffectiveness in 11 immediate outcomes of the APG MER process.——————————
As a result of this substantial progress, APG has decided to move Pakistanfrom enhanced (expedited) to enhanced follow-up; and Pakistan will continueto report back to the APG on progress to strengthen its implementation ofAML/CFT measures.
