ISLAMABAD: In recognition of the effective measures taken by Pakistan against plutocrat laundering and terror backing, the United Kingdom officially removed the country from its list of “ High threat Third Countries” on Monday.
Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari blazoned the “good news” while participating in a letter from the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office on his Twitter handle.
“Some good news. The United Kingdom has officially removed Pakistan from its list of ‘ High threat Third Countries ’ following our early completion of FATF action plans,” twittered Bilawal.
“His Majesty’s Treasury issued a correction to the UK’s High-Risk Third Countries’ list ON November 14, 2022, through a Statuary Instrument. The correction removes Pakistan from the list in agreement with the decision taken by the FATF on October 21, 2022,” the sanctioned document read.
“The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office recognizes the progress Pakistan has made to ameliorate plutocrat laundering and terrorist backing controls,” it further added.
In April 2021, the UK government added Pakistan to the list of undesirable 21 high-threat countries with wrong plutocrat laundering and terrorist backing controls.
This list of 21 countries — released by the UK Government — replicated the list of countries named by the FATF as high- threats or under increased monitoring. Pakistan participated in the list at number 15 with conflict-ridden countries similar to Syria, Uganda, Yemen, and Zimbabwe.
According to the UK government, the nations in this order pose trouble because of weak duty controls and a lack of checks and balances on terrorism-backing and plutocrat laundering.
Still, last month(October) the FATF, a global plutocrat-laundering and terrorism-backing watchdog, eventually removed Pakistan from its slate list after four times.
The global body’s President Raja Kumar had blazoned that Pakistan’s name has been removed from the “slate list” as the country addressed all 34 points of the action plan.
