Pakistan will be taken off the grey list as of today, according to the FATF.
ISLAMABAD: The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global organization that monitors money laundering, is meeting in Paris to examine Pakistan’s implementation of its action plan. Pakistan is hopeful that it would be taken off the grey list.
Many experts and diplomats believe that Pakistan will finally be taken off of FATF’s “grey list,” and an announcement in this regard is anticipated to be made at 08:00 today.
Along with Pakistan, the FATF will also announce its findings about Iran, Turkey, and North Korea.
With the exception of the necessity to show that senior leaders of the UN-designated militant organizations were the targets of investigations and prosecutions, Pakistan’s four-year effort to combat terrorism financing had met all requirements and conditions. This requirement was finally met.
For Pakistan, which has been resolutely battling terrorism at home through military operations, being off the “grey list” would send a strong signal to the rest of the world that Pakistan has made changes and has ended financing of terrorism as well.
Attending a FATF meeting is Hina Rabbani. With a team from Pakistan, State Minister Hina Rabbani Khar has already arrived in Paris. According to a diplomat who spoke to The News, “any and all comments are unproductive,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not inclined to publicly comment on the matter and has abstained from doing so.
However, Jalil Abbas Jillani, a former foreign secretary, told the publication, “We have met all the benchmarks. Our relations with the US are improving and the US will most probably remove its reservations. I don’t see any justification for continuing to be on the grey list. We’ll be done with it.
Earlier in June, while in Berlin for the FATF plenary meeting, Khar told DW News that Pakistan’s economy depended on getting off the international money-laundering and terrorist-financing watchdog’s “grey list” and maintaining good relations with the West.
Foreign monitoring of international transactions would decrease and there would be an increase in foreign direct investment, which has recently exhibited a declining tendency if Pakistan were to go off the “grey list.”
Also in June, following his return from Berlin, Khar stated that Pakistan’s enormous progress and dedication to raising its international anti-money laundering and countering the funding of terrorism and proliferation (AML/CFT) standards had been recognized. According to her, the 2018 action plan was completed without any outstanding action from Pakistan, and the 2021 action plan was finished one year ahead of schedule.
Following this, the FATF pushed Pakistan one step closer to being removed from the grey list by authorizing an onsite inspection, which took place early this year and validated the reform-implementation process Pakistan had started.
While originally keeping the visit a secret, the Foreign Office eventually acknowledged that the visit was “successful” and that “a natural conclusion” was anticipated.
Key causes
While this was going on, Michael Kugelman, the director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center think tank in Washington, said in an interview with Reuters that “when Pakistan announced new sentences for Lashkar-e-Hafiz Taiba’s Saeed and Sajid Mir in recent months — that’s what got things done in the end.”
“Pakistan’s ongoing steps to jail, fine, and seize assets of individuals related to anti-India militant groups are important reasons it could be taken off the list,” economist and former Citigroup banker Yousuf Nazar told Reuters.
China thwarts an Indian effort.
However, China’s intervention at the UNSC raised a red flag for India when it put technical holds on “joint India-US recommendations to designate two Lashkar-e-Taiba commanders on the UNSC terrorist list.” Pakistan’s measures for reforms and the FATF’s declaration on Friday coincide with this.
Talha Saeed, the son of Hafiz Saeed, was under these restraints.
India was disappointed by China’s five holds at the UNSC during the course of four months. Recently, Talha Saeed was spotted taking part in Pakistan’s by-elections.
