Pakistan is again hoping that China, Malaysia and Turkey will help it get away with failing to fully implement an action plan to address terrorist financing when the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) assesses its case in October, people said Tuesday. familiar with the events. .
Prior to the FATF working group and plenary meetings on October 18-23, the Asia Pacific Group (APG), a regional affiliate of the multilateral watchdog, reviewed Pakistan’s actions to combat the financing of the terrorism and money laundering in a virtual meeting on September 15 and 16.
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At the virtual meeting, China was expected to back Pakistan’s actions to counter terrorist financing, even though it has yet to fully comply with 13 of the 27 points of the action plan, the people quoted above said on condition of anonymity.
When Yao Jing, China’s outgoing ambassador to Pakistan, made a farewell call to de facto finance minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh in Islamabad on September 17, a day after the APG meeting, he was quoted in an official statement as saying “Their confidence that the FATF October review will go well for Pakistan.”
“Pakistan will look back to China, Malaysia and Turkey for their backing at the FATF plenary meeting as the support of just three members is enough to thwart any planned action,” said one of the people quoted above.
Malaysia was named APG co-chair in July, while Australia is the permanent co-chair and host country of the regional body.
While relations between India and Malaysia had soured under former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed, the new government formed after his resignation has been quietly working to improve ties with New Delhi, the people noted.
Before the FATF plenary meeting, Pakistan is required to submit a progress report by September 30.
But on July 28, the director general of Pakistan’s Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU) Lubna Farooq told a standing parliamentary committee on finance and revenue that the country had met only 14 of the 27 points of the action plan. while stakeholders “were working on the remaining 13 action items”.
People further noted that Pakistan had resorted to its usual tactic of some high-profile actions in the run-up to the FATF plenary to create the impression that it was honoring its counter-terrorism financing commitments.
For example, an anti-terror court in Lahore indicted four leaders of the banned Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD), including Hafiz Saeed’s brother-in-law, Abdul Rahman Makki, in four more cases last week.
A joint session of Pakistan’s Parliament also passed three bills aimed at implementing commitments made to the FATF last week, while tightening restrictions on eight Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) leaders, including Hafiz Saeed, the chief by Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Masood. Azhar and Dawood Ibrahim in taking action in August to enforce United Nations (UN) sanctions against them.
As things stand now, the people said, Pakistan is unlikely to be moved from the FATF’s “most controlled jurisdictions” or the so-called “gray list” to the “high-risk jurisdiction subject to a call to action.” or “black list”. “Despite growing frustration among members of the watchdog over their repeated failure to comply with the action plan, the people said.
This frustration was reflected in the statement issued after the FATF plenary in February: “All deadlines in [Pakistan’s] the action plan has expired. While noting recent and notable improvements, the FATF again expresses its concern that Pakistan did not complete its action plan in accordance with the agreed timelines and in light of the [terror financing] risks emanating from the jurisdiction “.
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