New Delhi (NVI): In a big jolt to the Imran Khan government, Pakistan was retained in the FATF ‘grey list’ as it has still not fulfilled all conditions to stop terror funding and money laundering. The decision was taken at the FATF plenary held in Paris today.
Pakistan has failed to fulfil three of the 27-point action plan. Its performance will be reviewed once again during the June plenary of FATF. Till then, it will remain on the grey list.
In its plenary session held today, the global watchdog on terrorism called on Pakistan to implement targeted financial sanctions against all 1267 and 1373 designated terrorists.
The FATF began its key 4-day meeting Monday to decide the fate of Pakistan.
Pakistan has been in the Grey List since June 2018 – that is under high degree of scrutiny of the FATF in the context of money- laundering and terror-financing.
During the last plenary held in October last year, the FATF had found that Pakistan had failed to fulfil six of the 27 obligations mandated by the watchdog. The failures included concrete action against Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar and Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed, who are masterminds of umpteen terror attacks in India.
Prior to the October 2020 plenary of the FATF, Pakistan had tried some eye washing by enacting three laws — the Anti-Money Laundering (second amendment) Bill-2020, Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) (third amendment) Bill-2020 and Islamabad Capital Territory Waqf Properties Bill-2020 – to proclaim that it was serious in acting against terror.
However, the FATF was not convinced and retained it in the ‘Grey List till this meeting.
-ARK
