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The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Thursday retained Pakistan on its grey list despite the country ‘meeting all the 27 points’ proposed by the global anti-money laundering watchdog.
“Pakistan remains under increased monitoring. The Pakistani government has two concurrent action plans with a total of 34 action items,” FATF President Dr Marcus Pleyer said while addressing the media following the meeting.
He said Pakistan has “addressed or largely addressed” 30 of the 34 items of the FATF action plan to curb money laundering and terror financing.
The FATF president said that earlier this year in June new action plan was issued to Pakistan after the Asia Pacific Group (AGP) identified a number of serious issues.
“Overall Pakistan is making good progress on this new action plan four of the seven action items are addressed or largely addressed,” he added.
Regarding the 2018 action plan focusing on the terror financing issue, Dr Marcus said Pakistan has taken a number of important steps but it needs to further demonstrate that investigation and prosecution have been pursued against the senior leadership of UN-designated terror groups.
“I thank the Pakistani government for their continued strong commitment to this process.”
‘Considerable progress’
Soon after the decision was announced, the Finance Division said in a statement that the FATF has recognised “considerable progress” made by Pakistan on both the action plans.
“With regard to the 2021 Action Plan, Pakistan has completed four of the seven Action Plan Items,” it added.
Pakistan has completed these four action plan items much before the timelines prescribed by the FATF, as per the communiqué.
“While progress on remaining three action items is well underway and it is aimed to complete three action items ahead of timelines set by the FATF.”
Also read: FATF reviews Pakistan’s 100% compliance report
The action items that have been completed include amendments in the Mutual Legal Assistance Act, 2020, AML/CFT supervision of Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions (DNFBPs), transparency of beneficial ownership information and implementation of Targeted Financial Sanctions for Proliferation Finance by DNFBPs. The remaining action items in 2021 Action Plan include investigation and prosecution of money laundering cases, confiscation of assets and UN listings, read the statement.
Regarding the 2018 action plan, Pakistan submitted a comprehensive progress report on the last remaining action plan item. The FATF acknowledged Pakistan’s continued political commitment, which led to significant progress across a comprehensive CFT Action Plan and encouraged Pakistan to report further progress on investigation and prosecution.
Considerable work has already been carried out on the remaining items of both action plans. The FATF will undertake the next review of Pakistan’s Progress in February 2022, the official statement said.
The FATF plenary meetings were held from 19-21 October 2021, where its members discussed a variety of topics including Pakistan’s progress.
The Pakistan delegation was led by Federal Minister for Energy/Chairman National FATF Coordination Committee Hammad Azhar.
“Pakistan is fully committed to completing its both action plans in cooperation with the FATF and its international partners.”
The decision came following the virtual meeting of the FATF Plenary attended by delegates representing 205 members of the Global Network and observer organisations including the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations and the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units.
Pakistan had been placed at the FATF grey list with effect from June 2018 and was asked to implement a 27-point action plan to exit the grey list.
In June this year, the FATF retained Pakistan on its grey list despite the country meeting 26 of the 27 conditions and handed it over a new six-point action plan, keeping Islamabad exposed to global pressure tactics.
However, the FATF noted that Pakistan had completed all but one of the 27 items in the action plan and it had decided to keep it under “increased monitoring”.
Pakistan implemented all the 27 points proposed by the FATF, after which there remained no justification for the international watchdog to continue keeping the country in its grey list, sources in the finance ministry said on Wednesday.
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