On Friday, FATF announced that Pakistan will continue being a part of the “increased monitoring list.” Although, the country implemented 26 out of 27 points that were a part of the “Original Action Plan” undertaken in June 2018. Let’s dig into further details and discuss why is Pakistan still on the grey list?
However, in June 2019, the regional partner of FATF, the Asia Pacific Group-APG during the assessment of Pakistan, identified many problems. It mentioned that the high risks of money laundering in the state can give rise to organized crimes. Therefore, the law enforcement agencies will have to cooperate on an international level to impound valuable assets.
The FATF President, Dr Marcus Pleyer declared that Pakistan will remain on the grey list. He further added that the country must address financial terrorism. However, he said that Pakistan is still unable to implement the standards of FATF in many areas.
The APG evaluation came up with a New Action Plan. Pleyer explained that it included six implementation points. Further, he mentioned, delisting would be based on both the Original Action Plan and the Parallel Action Plan.
Whereas the question is despite completing 96% of the Original Action Plan, Why is Pakistan still on the grey list? Shah Mehmood Qureshi put forward this question and said,
“some powers desire to keep the sword of FATF hanging over Pakistan.”
Shah Mehmood Qureshi
What is FATF?
Financial Action Task Force is a Paris-based watchdog. It monitors different countries for money laundering. A Group of Seven (G-7) Summit established the FATF in Paris. It makes recommendations to combat financing terrorism. It also recommends legal operational measures to battle money laundering.
What is Grey list?
This list includes the states that require “increased monitoring”. Such countries work on the FTAF Plans to counter money laundering and proliferation financing. However, there is also a blacklist in which the FATF’s global efforts to control money laundering are zero. According to the recently issued grey list (21st February 2020), the countries included are Albania, the Bahamas, Barbados, Botswana, Cambodia, Ghana, Iceland, Jamaica, Mauritius, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, Syria, Uganda, Yemen and Zimbabwe.
Pakistan still on the grey list! Remarks of famous personalities
Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin commented on the recent FATF’s decision that any other country would have exited the grey list in the given period. Moreover, he considered geopolitics the major reason.
“Had there been another country, it would have been off the grey list. We are trapped in geopolitics,”
Shaukat Tarin
In the meanwhile, Hammad Azhar the Minister for Energy explained that FATF has appreciated Pakistan’s performance so far.
“we should be proud of the work done so far”.
Hammad Azhar
He further added, the country would implement the remaining point of the plan within three to four months. Moreover, he said Pakistan will complete the rest of the 7 points of the Mutual Evaluation Report of APG in a year.
Also, read about the controversial statement of Imran Khan making rounds around Twitter.
Great work
July 1, 2021 at 3:11 pmThank you!
July 2, 2021 at 4:38 pm