ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office said on Friday that Pakistan had fully complied with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) ‘terms of exit from its’ gray list’ and suggested that only political considerations of members of the organization responsible for illegal funding could be caught. back to that stage.
“In the context of the FATF, we have faithfully complied and eliminated all technical requirements and hope the outcome will be positive,” FO spokesman Asim Iftikhar told a weekly press conference.
However, while emphasizing that Pakistan as a “responsible country” does not comment publicly on FATF procedures, he warned that “there are problems with political entry into other countries, and that remains a problem”.
The FATF working group and conference meetings will be in Paris from Feb. 21 to March 4. During the conference session, the watchdog reviews the international progress made in its gray and black list and updates it accordingly.
Pakistan has been on the gray list of FATFs, also known as the ‘areas under increased surveillance’ list, since June 2018. Its performance in relation to the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing has been under constant review ever since.
Although subsequent reviews have noted the progress the country has made in dealing with illicit money, watchdog has kept it on the gray list. This was done in order to keep pressure on Islamabad to complete the implementation of the FATF-approved program to address the weaknesses of the anti-money laundering and terrorist financing regimes.
The first action plan includes 27 items, of which Pakistan spoke on October 26 last year, at which the last FATF summit was held. However, the FATF in June had provided Pakistan with an additional program that includes seven items focusing on tackling money laundering.
Therefore, there are 34 items in the two operational plans provided to Pakistan, 30 of which were finalized in October.
The next FATF conference will take its decision based on a recent report submitted by its regional subsidiary – Asia-Pacific Group on Money Laundering – on Feb. 1.
Following the October summit, Marcus Pleyer, president of watchdog, stressed that Pakistan has continued to demonstrate that investigations into terrorist financing and persecution are directed at senior leaders and commanders of UN-designated terrorist groups. In addition, he called on Islamabad to intensify its anti-money laundering regime as noted by “significant shortcomings”.
TERRORISM: In response to questions about recent terrorist activities, particularly in Balochistan, Mr Iftikhar said the government was taking all “necessary steps” to address the terrorist threat across the border and its allies, especially India.
“There is a history of terrorists gaining support abroad and we are well aware of that and we will take all necessary steps to eradicate this cross-border terrorism,” he said.
A spokesman said Islamabad had been working with the Taliban government on the issue.
Commenting on the visit of Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi earlier this week, he said: “It was part of an ongoing constructive and fruitful dialogue with Pakistan-Iran cooperation.”
He described Iran as “a close friend of our partners”.
Regarding the 15th anniversary of the Samjhauta Express explosion, a spokesman renewed the call for justice for the victims and called on Pakistani agencies to avoid terrorism as a tool of national policy.
68 passengers were killed in the incident, including 44 Pakistanis.
“Continuing Pakistan’s failure to provide victims of these horrific terrorist attacks is a reaffirmation of the non-violent culture enjoyed by terrorist attacks in Pakistan,” a spokesman said, adding that the families of the victims are awaiting justice.
Pakistan must take an example from its neighbour India to manage its economic and political diplomacy.