Pakistan’s abject failure to fulfil six major obligations of Financial Action Task Force (FATF), including in the case of India’s two most-wanted terrorists Hafiz Saeed and Maulana Masood Azhar, is likely to ensure its continuance in the “grey list” of the global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog, senior officials said on Sunday.
The FATF is due to host a virtual plenary between October 21-23. The meeting will take a final call on Pakistan’s continuation on the grey list after a thorough review of Islamabad’s performance in fulfilling the global commitments and standards on the fight against money laundering and terror financing.
According to officials, FATF had given Pakistan “27 action plan obligations for completely checking terror financing of which so far it has cleared 21 but failed in some of the key tasks.
satisfied with Pakistan’s fulfilment of their wishes in Afghanistan and this will also go against the country, they added.
The terror financing watchdog is also unhappy with terror groups operating from Pakistani soil and the support, covert and overt, being provided to them by the state machinery. The most prominent names among them being Masood Azhar, Hafiz Saeed and Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, who are the most wanted terrorists in India for their involvement in several terrorist attacks including the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.
With Pakistan remaining in the grey list, it has become increasingly difficult for it to get financial aid from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the European Union, exacerbating problems for the cash-strapped country. The terror financing watchdog will also judge if competent authorities in Pakistan were taking enough action against illegal money or value transfer services and have tightened entry points used for illegal funding.
The FATF plenary was earlier scheduled in June but Pakistan got an unexpected breather after the global watchdog against financial crimes temporarily postponed the meet in the wake of Covid-19.
Pakistan was placed on the grey list by the FATF in June 2018 and was given a plan of action to complete it by October 2019. Since then, the country continues to be on that list due to its failure to comply with the FATF mandates. Established in 1989, the FATF currently has 39 members. India is a member of the FATF consultations and its Asia Pacific Group.
With agency inputs