The Financial Action Task Force is set to decide on the status of Pakistan’s gray list at a virtual meeting scheduled later this month, according to a media report on Monday.
The Paris-based global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog had placed Pakistan on the gray list in June 2018 and asked Islamabad to implement an action plan to curb money laundering and financing. terrorism by the end of 2019, but the deadline was later extended. to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Seeking to get off the FATF gray list, indebted Pakistan in August imposed financial sanctions on 88 banned terrorist groups and their leaders, including the mastermind of the 11/26 Bombay attack and Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz. Saeed, Jaish- The head of e-Mohammed (JeM) Masood Azhar and the underworld Don Dawood Ibrahim.
The FATF virtual plenary scheduled for October 21-23 will decide whether Pakistan should be delisted from its gray list, based on a review of Islamabad’s performance in meeting global commitments and standards on the fight against money laundering and anti-money laundering. terrorist financing (ML&TF), The Dawn News reported.
The meeting was scheduled for June, but Islamabad got an unexpected respite after the global financial crime watchdog temporarily postponed all mutual evaluations and follow-up deadlines in the wake of the serious health risk in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic. 9, he said.
The agency also put a blanket pause in the review process, thus giving Pakistan an additional four months to comply with the requirements.
In February, the FATF gave Pakistan, which failed to meet 13 targets, a four-month grace period to complete its 27-point action plan against ML&TF committed to the international community. In its third plenary held virtually in June, the FATF decided to keep Pakistan on the gray list, as Islamabad did not control the flow of money to terrorist groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) .
With Pakistan continuing on the ‘gray list’, it is increasingly difficult for the country to obtain financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the European Union, which it further exacerbates the problems for the financially precarious nation.
In July, Pakistan’s Senate unanimously passed two bills related to the harsh conditions imposed by the FATF. In August, the lower house of Parliament passed four FATF-related bills as part of Pakistan’s efforts to move from the FATF gray list to the white list.
In September, the joint session of Parliament amended around 15 laws to improve its legal system and meet the international standards required by the FATF. The government has already submitted its report to the FATF and its affiliated review groups and responded to their comments, detailing compliance with the 13 pending action items, according to Dawn’s report. This month’s FATF meeting will review Pakistan’s compliance with the remaining 13 action items. The FATF will examine whether the country has demonstrated corrective actions and sanctions applied in cases of violations related to the management of terrorist financing risk and the obligations of sanctions for terrorism financing.
The FATF will also judge whether competent authorities cooperated and took steps to identify and take enforcement action against illegal money or value transfer services and whether they had implemented cross-border currency controls and bearer negotiable instruments at all ports of entry, including effective enforcement, proportionate and dissuasive penalties.
Pakistan also has to determine whether law enforcement agencies were identifying and investigating the broader range of terrorist financing activities and whether terrorist financing (TF) investigations and prosecution are targeting designated individuals and entities, and those who act on behalf of or under the direction of designated persons or entities in addition to demonstrating that prosecutions for FT result in effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions, according to the report.
The country’s most prominent areas of action also include the effective implementation of targeted financial sanctions (backed by a comprehensive legal obligation) against the 1,267 and 1,373 designated terrorists and those acting on their behalf or on their behalf, including prevention of collection and movement of funds, identification and freezing of assets. (movable and immovable) and prohibit access to funds and financial services, he said. If the FATF at its meeting finds that Pakistan has not complied with its requirements, there is a possibility that the world body will put the country on the ‘Black List’ along with North Korea and Iran.
In August, Prime Minister Imran Khan warned that if he was blacklisted by the FATF, Pakistan’s entire economy would be destroyed due to inflation and a massive drop in the Pakistani rupee. The FATF is an intergovernmental body established in 1989 to combat money laundering, terrorist financing, and other threats related to the integrity of the international financial system.
The FATF currently has 39 members, including two regional organizations: the European Commission and the Gulf Cooperation Council. PTI SH SCY SCY SCY
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