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Pakistan puts off from FATF grey list

Web DeskOctober 22, 2022211 comments

Web Desk (LTN NEWS): Pakistan got good news on Friday when it was taken off the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list. This happened after the country put into action two action plans with 34 points each to stop money laundering and terror financing.

“We’re glad that Pakistan got off the FATF’s grey list for putting 34 points of action plans into place. FATF President T. Raja Kumar told a virtual news conference from Paris at the end of a plenary meeting Friday night that Pakistan’s political leaders told the inspection team that they would continue to make the necessary changes to fight money laundering and terror financing. So, the FATF’s plan to keep a closer eye on Pakistan is no longer in effect.

After the plenary meeting in Paris on Friday, FATF said in a statement that Pakistan would continue to work with APG to improve its Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) regime.

The FATF president also said that Pakistan should now be able to keep these reforms going and work to strengthen its system for its security and the region’s security as a whole.

The president of the FATF said that Pakistan made a lot of progress and that steps were taken to keep an eye on the risks of seizing assets from people who launder money and fund terrorism.

He said that the FATF looked at ways to stop money laundering and funding for terrorism. He said that Pakistan was put on the “grey list” in June 2018 and given the first action plan for 27 points, most of which had to do with how the country paid for terror.

He said Pakistan was given seven things to do in the second plan. Pakistan mostly followed two action plans with 34 points. Recently, an inspection team went to Pakistan and found that the country had put in place effective ways to stop terror financing and money laundering.

“The country’s leaders promised the FATF that they would keep making changes to meet FATF requirements,” he said, adding that the FATF was happy with its recent on-site check results.

He said that Pakistan showed political will to keep making changes. It needs the right resources.

“We were told during the on-site inspection that it will also do more to stop money laundering and funding for terrorism in the future,” he said.

In the statement, the FATF said that it is happy with Pakistan’s progress in improving its AML/CFT regime. Pakistan has improved the effectiveness of its AML/CFT system and fixed technical flaws to meet the goals of its action plans to fix strategic flaws that the FATF found in June 2018 and June 2021.

The latter action plan, which included 34 action items, was finished before the deadline.

Shehbaz Sharif, who is the prime minister, went on Twitter. “I’d like to praise Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, and their teams, as well as all political parties, for working together to get Pakistan off the grey list. Alhumdulillah! Pakistan getting off the FATF grey list is a sign that all our hard work has paid off over the years.

“Congratulations to the people of Pakistan,” tweeted Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. Pakistan has been taken off the FATF grey list for good. Pakistan Zindabad!”

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar spoke to the media live from Paris and said, “Alhamdulillah, FATF has recognised Pakistan’s efforts over the last four years and unanimously removed it from its grey list.

This has never happened before. Every country, even the US, helped us and said this was something Pakistan had never done before. We are now on the White List.

“Only India, an irresponsible country, fought against us, but they were disappointed that they couldn’t make the decision about politics.” FATF President Raja Kumar had just told the media that Pakistan had made a lot of progress and done a lot of work, including addressing all 34 points of the action plan, right before Ms Khar spoke. He was glad to hear this and said Pakistan was no longer on the “grey list.”

Ms Khar said that Pakistan is now considering joining FATF and giving the idea much thought.

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