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NEW YORK: Pakistan quietly removed around 1,800 terrorists from its watch list, including that of the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attack and LeT operations commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, before a new round of assessments of the global watchdog against money laundering. FATF, according to a US-based startup. USA It automates the compliance of the watch list.
The so-called outlaw list, which is maintained by the Pakistan National Terrorism Authority or NACTA, is intended in part to help financial institutions avoid doing business or processing transactions of suspected terrorists.
The list in 2018 contained some 7,600 names. It has dropped to less than 3,800 in the past 18 months, according to Castellum.AI, a New York-based regulatory technology company.
Around 1,800 of the names have been removed since the beginning of March, according to data collected by Castellum.
Pakistan is working to implement a mutually agreed-upon action plan with the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF), part of which involves “demonstrating the effective implementation of specific financial sanctions.”
These eliminations may be part of Pakistan’s action plan to implement the FATF recommendations, he said.
While Pakistan received a rating of “low” effectiveness from the FATF with respect to terrorist financing preventive measures and financial sanctions, the FATF noted in February that Pakistan has largely addressed 14 of 27 action items, with different levels of progress in the rest of the action, he said.
The FATF will re-evaluate Pakistan’s progress in June 2020.
Currently included on the FATF ‘gray list’, Pakistan has been struggling in recent months to avoid being added to a list of countries deemed non-compliant with anti-money laundering and terrorist financing regulations, a move that officials Here they fear it may harm their economy, which is already under severe strain.
According to Castellum.AI, several of the names removed from Pakistan’s list appear to be aliases for designated terrorists on the United States or United Nations sanctions lists.
The lack of certain identifiers, such as birth dates or, in some cases, a national identification number, on the NACTA list makes it difficult to know for sure, the Wall Street Journal said, citing sanctions experts.
In the case of Zaka Ur Rehman, the difference between Zaka and Zaki fits the parameters of an accurate phonetic translation, the company said.
Castellum.AI said it also searched for the full name of the Lashkar-e-Taiba leader, Zaki Ur Rehman Lakhvi, on the list of people banned in Pakistan, and was not on the list. This means that if the name removed is a false positive, that Pakistan has not added Lashkar leader E Taiba to its terrorism watch list.
According to the Wall Street Journal, no public explanations were given about the withdrawals as they were taking place, but a Pakistani official said in an email interview that they are part of the country’s ongoing efforts to fulfill the commitment to strengthen its safeguards against The terrorism.
The size and speed of withdrawals are unusual, according to Peter Piatetsky, a former senior policy adviser to the United States Treasury and co-founder of Castellum.AI. “Deleting nearly 4,000 names without a public explanation is unheard of and raises important questions about the listing process,” he said.
Global standards require countries to report listing removal to the financial sector immediately after taking such action. Pakistan, which designates entities and individuals with suspected links to terrorism under its 1997 Anti-Terror Law, has historically failed to do so, the newspaper said.
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The so-called outlaw list, which is maintained by the Pakistan National Terrorism Authority or NACTA, is intended in part to help financial institutions avoid doing business or processing transactions of suspected terrorists.
The list in 2018 contained some 7,600 names. It has dropped to less than 3,800 in the past 18 months, according to Castellum.AI, a New York-based regulatory technology company.
Around 1,800 of the names have been removed since the beginning of March, according to data collected by Castellum.
Pakistan is working to implement a mutually agreed-upon action plan with the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF), part of which involves “demonstrating the effective implementation of specific financial sanctions.”
These eliminations may be part of Pakistan’s action plan to implement the FATF recommendations, he said.
While Pakistan received a rating of “low” effectiveness from the FATF with respect to terrorist financing preventive measures and financial sanctions, the FATF noted in February that Pakistan has largely addressed 14 of 27 action items, with different levels of progress in the rest of the action, he said.
The FATF will re-evaluate Pakistan’s progress in June 2020.
Currently included on the FATF ‘gray list’, Pakistan has been struggling in recent months to avoid being added to a list of countries deemed non-compliant with anti-money laundering and terrorist financing regulations, a move that officials Here they fear it may harm their economy, which is already under severe strain.
According to Castellum.AI, several of the names removed from Pakistan’s list appear to be aliases for designated terrorists on the United States or United Nations sanctions lists.
The lack of certain identifiers, such as birth dates or, in some cases, a national identification number, on the NACTA list makes it difficult to know for sure, the Wall Street Journal said, citing sanctions experts.
In the case of Zaka Ur Rehman, the difference between Zaka and Zaki fits the parameters of an accurate phonetic translation, the company said.
Castellum.AI said it also searched for the full name of the Lashkar-e-Taiba leader, Zaki Ur Rehman Lakhvi, on the list of people banned in Pakistan, and was not on the list. This means that if the name removed is a false positive, that Pakistan has not added Lashkar leader E Taiba to its terrorism watch list.
According to the Wall Street Journal, no public explanations were given about the withdrawals as they were taking place, but a Pakistani official said in an email interview that they are part of the country’s ongoing efforts to fulfill the commitment to strengthen its safeguards against The terrorism.
The size and speed of withdrawals are unusual, according to Peter Piatetsky, a former senior policy adviser to the United States Treasury and co-founder of Castellum.AI. “Deleting nearly 4,000 names without a public explanation is unheard of and raises important questions about the listing process,” he said.
Global standards require countries to report listing removal to the financial sector immediately after taking such action. Pakistan, which designates entities and individuals with suspected links to terrorism under its 1997 Anti-Terror Law, has historically failed to do so, the newspaper said.
