PARIS – The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has decided to keep Pakistanon its grey list till June 2021 as Pakistan successfully implemented mostof the action plan given by the international body to curb terror financing.
The FATF held the plenary meetings virtually from 22-25 February 2021,where its members discussed a range of topics relating to Pakistan’sprogress. The international watchdog has appreciated Pakistan for thesignificant progress made on the entire action plan.
Pakistan’s delegation in the FATF Plenary was led by Muhammad Hammad Azhar,Chairman FATF Coordination Committee / Federal Minister for Industries andProduction and attended by senior officers from Ministry of ForeignAffairs, NACTA, FMU, National FATF Secretariat and other key stakeholders.
Speaking via a live video link, FATF President Dr Marcus Pleyer hailingPakistan’s counterterrorism efforts said that the country needs to beworking on the remaining deficiencies.
“Out of the 27 conditions, three still need to be addressed,” he said. “Irecognise Pakistan’s efforts, and out of the six tasks that it had tocomplete, three had been [done] in an outstanding manner, but it substantially needs to work on the remaining three, particularly in termsof terror financing.”
“Pakistan has committed at a high-level […] and its not a time to put iton the blacklist,” Pleyer said.
“The deadline for Pakistan [to meet the 27 conditions to get off the greylist] had expired, that is why the body had urged Pakistani authorities toramp up their efforts in dealing with the items,” he added.
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The FATF has also acknowledged the continued high-level politicalcommitment of Pakistan to combat terrorist financing which, according toFATF statement, has led to significant progress across a comprehensivecountering financing of terrorism plan.
Pakistan has undertaken enormous work to strengthen its AML/CFT regime andaddress the strategic counter-terrorist financing related deficiencies.
In addition to the acknowledgement by FATF in its plenary statement thatPakistan has made significant progress on the entire action plan byaddressing 24 out of the 27 items in the action plan, Pakistan has alsomade notable progress in the remaining 3 action items which also standpartially addressed.
As of now, all the 10 action items pertaining to the financial sector andborder controls have been addressed. In relation to Terrorism Financing(TF) investigations and prosecutions, 6 of the 8 action items have beenaddressed, whereas for targeted financial sanctions, 8 of the 9 actionitems also stand addressed. The progress on the remaining 3 action items iswell underway with significant progress made so far.
The Ministry of Finance reaffirms its commitment to continue strengtheningthe AML/CFT regime in line with the global standards.