The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the world’s leading counterterrorism monitoring group, voted on Friday to keep Pakistan on a gray list over the Imran Khan government’s failure to comply with a 27-point action plan issued to it. He delivered. with the matter said.
The global watchdog’s decision marks a major setback for Prime Minister Khan, who had made efforts in the run-up to the virtual meeting of the FATF plenary to liberate his country, including hiring a major lobbyist firm on Capitol. Hill to boost his narrative. However, the FATF did not allow the status of Pakistan to change, primarily in view of Pakistan’s inability to substantially deliver on 6 of the 27 action items.
The FATF noted that Pakistan has made progress on all elements of the action plan and has largely addressed 21 of the 27 action elements. “As all the action plan deadlines have expired, the FATF strongly urges Pakistan to quickly complete its full action plan by February 2021,” the watchdog said.
A formal announcement on the FATF plenary meeting is expected soon. A person familiar with the development said that the watchdog had noted the progress made by Pakistan in addressing technical compliance deficiencies, but berated Islamabad for flaws in other parameters and asked it to do more.
India, which bears the brunt of Pakistan’s use of terrorism as an instrument of diplomacy, had set the tone before Friday’s meeting, criticizing Islamabad for continuing to be a safe haven for terrorists appointed by the Security Council in the UN as the head of Jaish-e-Mohammed, MasoodAzhar. , Lashkar-e-Taiba Operations Commander Zakirur Rahman Lakhvi and Dawood Ibrahim.
New Delhi had also tallied 3,800 unprovoked ceasefire violations along the ceasefire line in an effort to push terrorists into Jammu and Kashmir, dump weapons, and smuggle weapons and narcotics across the international border using drones.
Pakistan was included in the watchdog’s gray list in June 2018 after red flags were raised for its constant inaction against terrorist groups and plugging holes in its legal framework to punish them. Since then, it has periodically taken steps to show that it is making efforts.
But he has been criticized for reversing the changes when he could. Like when he expanded the “outlaw data” in his Punjab province to include 7,600 names in 2018 to persuade the FATF not to blacklist Islamabad. This year, Castellum.AI, a US-based technology company that tracks watchlists globally, noted that Pakistan had quietly removed some 3,800 names from this list.
Prime Minister Imran Khan’s inability to remove his country from the gray list is also seen as a failure of his diplomacy, as he needed the support of 12 countries to back up his narrative that Pakistan should receive a pardon as it was on its way. to comply. their commitments to fight the financing of terrorism.
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