While giving a four-month lifeline, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on October 18 strongly urged Pakistan to swiftly complete its full action plan by February 2020 and until then the country will remain on the ‘grey list’, reports Dawn. The Paris-based FATF reviewed measures taken and progress made by almost 15 countries, including Pakistan, vis-à-vis anti-money laundering and combating financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) in its five-day plenary, which concluded on October 18. Representatives from 206 countries and jurisdictions around the world took part in the meeting. The Pakistani delegation was led by the Minister for Economic Affairs, Hammad Azhar.
While noting recent improvements, the FATF again expressed serious concerns with the overall lack of progress by Pakistan to address its TF (terror financing) risks, including remaining deficiencies in demonstrating a sufficient understanding of Pakistan’s transnational TF risks, and more broadly, the country’s failure to complete its action plan in line with the agreed timelines and in the light of TF risks emanating from the jurisdiction. “To date, Pakistan has only largely addressed five of 27 action items, with varying levels of progress made on the rest of the action plan,” the note further said.
The Ministry of Finance in a statement said Pakistan's delegation at the FATF reaffirmed its political commitment to fully implement the action plan, reports Times of India. The Pakistan officials also held side-line meetings with various delegations and briefed them about the progress on the FATF action plan and steps taken for strengthening its AML/CFT framework, it said.