ISLAMABAD: With just two unmet targets out of 34 action points, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has retained Pakistan on its terrorism backing “ slate list” and asked the country to address the remaining scarcities in its fiscal system as soon as possible.
Still, at the concluding session of its mongrel grand meeting on Friday, the Paris- grounded global plutocrat laundering and terrorist backing watchdog also appreciated Pakistan’s robust progress on its global commitments to fight fiscal crimes.
The FATF added the United Arab Emirates to its increased monitoring list, also known as the slate list, of countries with shy controls over terrorism backing. The watchdog also decided to appointT. Raja Kumar of Singapore as its coming chairman for a fixed two- time term.
FATF notes two targets out of 34 not met; praises Islamabad’s‘ robust progress’
Pakistan was placed on the list in 2018, which made foreign enterprises more conservative about investing in the country.
The Friday grand noted that Pakistan had completed 26 of the 27 action particulars in its 2018 action plan of the FATF and of the seven action particulars of the 2021 action plan of the watchdog’s Asia Pacific Group on Plutocrat Laundering (APG) ahead of the deadlines.
It was noted that since June 2018 — when Pakistan made a high- position political commitment to work with the FATF and APG to strengthen itsanti-money laundering/ combating the backing of terrorism (AML/ CFT) governance and to address its strategiccounter-terrorist backing- related scarcities — the country’s continued political commitment had led to significant progress across a comprehensive CFT action plan.
The FATF encouraged Pakistan to continue making progress to address, as soon as possible, the one remaining item by continuing to demonstrate that terror backing examinations and executions target elderly leaders and commanders ofUN-designated terrorist groups.
In response to fresh scarcities latterly linked in Pakistan’s 2019 APG Collective Evaluation Report in June 2021, Pakistan handed further high- position commitment to address these strategic scarcities pursuant to a new action plan that primarily focuses on combating plutocrat laundering.
“ Since June 2021, Pakistan has taken nippy way towards perfecting its AML/ CFT governance and completed six of the seven action particulars ahead of any applicable deadlines expiring, including by demonstrating that it’s enhancing the impact of warrants by nominating individualities and realities for UN designation and restraining and expropriating proceeds of crime in line with Pakistan’s threat profile,” the FATF said.
“ Pakistan should continue to work to address the one remaining item in its 2021 action plan by demonstrating a positive and sustained trend of pursuing complex ( plutocrat laundering) examinations and executions,” it said.
Officers said Pakistan now aimed to completely misbehave with the 2021 action plan onanti-money laundering and combating terror backing by the end of January 2023.
The country had two concurrent action plans with a aggregate of 34 action points, of which 30 had moreover been completely or largely addressed to check plutocrat laundering and terror backing. The most recent action plan of 2021 on plutocrat laundering from the APG had largely concentrated on plutocrat laundering.
The completion of APG’s action plan for the effectiveness of AML/ CFT is also a structural standard of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for end-March.
Lately, the IMF asked Pakistan to complete the last remaining item in the 2018 AML/ CFT action plan on the effectiveness of terror backing examinations and executions of elderly leaders ofUN-designated terrorist groups, and instantly address the scarcities linked in the APG’s Collective Evaluation Report under the 2021 action plan.
