Dirty money watchdog begins process to clear Pakistan's name

New Delhi: In what might come as a big relief for Pakistan and a concern to the Indian government, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has started the process of removing it from the grey list. After the scrutiny, the FATF found that Pakistan had substantially completed the two action plans covering 34 items.

Pakistan’s minister of state for foreign affairs, Hina R Khar tweeted to this effect. According to her, the FATF was satisfied with the action plan of Pakistan from 2018-to 2021 after doing the technical evaluation.

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— Hina R Khar (@HinaRKhar) June 17, 2022

“The FATF has cleared Pakistan on all its action plans and has said that our performance has been up to the mark. With this the process to bring us out of the grey list starts. The FATF will now send a team to Pakistan for technical evaluation and we will try to ensure that the team finishes its work before the next plenary session of the FATF in October 2022. God willing, the process to bring us out from the Grey list will be complete by then,” she said.

If after its on-site visit to verify the implementation and sustainability of Pakistan’s money laundering and counter-terrorism financing measures the FATF gives a nod, Pakistan will be taken off the grey list. Coming out of the Grey List can help Pakistan to come out from the cold as it would prove helpful in ending many economic and strategic sanctions. The development is a matter of great concern for India as it has maintained that Pakistan is using counterfeit currency and money laundering to destabilize India by funding terror modules.

Quick to respond to the development and take credit, former prime minister Imran Khan said “FATF repeatedly praised the work and political will my government demonstrated”.

Pak was nominated for grey listing by FATF in Feb 2018 & had to complete the most challenging action plan ever given to any jurisdiction. When my govt took over, we faced dire prospect of Blacklisting by that body. Our past compliance history with FATF was also not favourable.
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) June 17, 2022

Mr. Khan said that when his government came to power in 2018, it faced the “direct prospect of blacklisting” by the FATF as the country’s compliance history was also not favourable.

“I constituted a FATF Coordination Committee headed by key minister Hammad Azhar. The committee had representation from all government departments and security agencies relevant to our FATF action plan. The officers worked day and night in the first instance to avoid blacklisting.

–INDIA NEWS STREAM

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