ISLAMABAD – Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) meeting will be held inParis on 16th February where it will decide Pakistan’s status on the greylist.
Pakistan was last placed on FATF’s grey list back in June 2018 and wasgiven a 15-month deadline to implement a 27-point action plan to avoidbeing blacklisted.——————————
On January 28th, the State Bank of Pakistan announced that the country hasmade significant progress to get off the grey list. Pakistan’s team, led bythe Federal Minister for Economic Affairs, Hammad Azhar, put forth thecountry’s compliance report in a meeting held in China from January 21 to23.
Out of the total 27 action plans, Pakistan was fully compliant on 5 whilepromising progress was shown for the remaining 22 points. At the meeting,Pakistan was able to convince China, the United States, and other Europeancountries that it had taken effective steps to counter terror financingfrom October 2019 till January 2020.
China’s deputy foreign minister said:
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Pakistan has made great efforts to strengthen its domesticcounter-terrorism financing system with visible progress. Its politicalwill and active efforts should be recognised and encouraged by theinternational community.
As a result of this meeting, Pakistan now requires 12 out of 39 votes to beremoved from the grey list. Besides China, Pakistan is fully backed byMalaysia and Turkey and faces opposition from India.
Officials are confident the country won’t be put on the blacklist and atworst the grey list period will be extended until Pakistan fully complieswith an action plan.
