Image Source : AP Pakistan unlikely to exit ‘grey list’ as FATF meets to determine its destiny: Report
Pakistan is unlikely to exit the ‘gray checklist’ of the FATF as some European nations have taken the stand that Islamabad has not absolutely applied all of the factors of a plan of motion set by it, a media report stated on Sunday, on the eve of the plenary assembly of the worldwide watchdog for cash laundering and terror financing.
The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force had positioned Pakistan on the gray checklist in June 2018 and requested Islamabad to implement a plan of motion to curb cash laundering and terror financing by the tip of 2019 however the deadline was prolonged in a while resulting from COVID-19 pandemic.
The digital FATF plenary will likely be held in Paris from February 22 to 25 to contemplate circumstances of assorted nations on the gray checklist, together with Pakistan, and a call will likely be made on the conclusion of the conferences, Dawn newspaper reported.
In the final plenary held in October 2020, the FATF concluded that Pakistan will proceed in its “grey list” until February 2021 because it has didn’t fulfil six out of 27 obligations of the worldwide cash laundering and terrorist financing watchdog that embrace failure to take motion in opposition to two of India’s most wished terrorists – Jaish-e Mohammad chief Maulana Masood Azhar and Jamaat-ud-Dawah head Hafiz Saeed.
Azhar and Saeed are most wished terrorists in India for his or her involvement in quite a few terrorist acts, together with 26/11 Mumbai terror assaults and bombing of a CRPF bus at Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir final yr.
An official supply shut to those developments informed the paper on Saturday that Pakistan had complied with the six suggestions and in addition submitted particulars to the FATF secretariat.
The members would now consider Pakistan’s responses through the assembly, the supply stated, including that the choice can be taken after a consensus among the many members.
The paper, quoting a journalist protecting the FATF stated that some European nations, particularly the host France, had really helpful to the FATF to proceed to maintain Pakistan on the gray checklist and had taken the place that not all factors had been absolutely applied by Islamabad.
Other European nations are additionally supporting France, he stated.
France was not proud of the current response of Islamabad on the cartoon situation, he stated.
Pakistan has not even posted a daily ambassador in Paris, he stated, including that diplomatic and financial relations between the 2 nations weren’t on top of things.
The US has additionally expressed concern over the acquittal the accused in American journalist Daniel Pearl’s kidnapping and homicide case.
It is feared that the US might also foyer for continuation of Islamabad on the gray checklist at the least till June this yr.
Pakistan’s Supreme Court final month ordered launch of British-born al-Qaeda terrorist Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and his three aides within the 2002 Pearl homicide case, a judgement denounced by the American journalist’s household as “a complete travesty of justice.”.
An official, who just isn’t prepared to be quoted, informed the paper that Pakistan had submitted a compliance report back to the FATF.
“We can’t say what will be their response to it; let’s wait for the day,” he stated.
The official stated Pakistan had already achieved main laws concerning punishment of terror financing, which was round one yr within the previous laws.
In October 2020, Minister for Industries and Production Hammad Azhar, who’s the federal government’s level man on the FATF, introduced that Pakistan had made progress throughout all motion plan objects and had now largely addressed 21 of the 27 motion objects.
When the minister was approached for feedback on the implementation standing of the remaining six suggestions, he stated he would make no remark till the plenary was over.
“There is a strict confidentiality rule,” he stated.
With Pakistan’s continuation within the ‘gray’ checklist, it’s more and more changing into troublesome for Islamabad to get monetary assist from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the European Union, thus additional enhancing issues for the debt-ridden nation which is in a precarious monetary scenario.
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