Pakistan is unlikely to exit the ‘gray listing’ of the FATF as some European international locations have taken the stand that Islamabad has not totally applied all of the factors of a plan of motion set by it, a media report mentioned on Sunday, on the eve of the plenary assembly of the worldwide watchdog for cash laundering and terror financing.
The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force had positioned Pakistan on the gray listing in June 2018 and requested Islamabad to implement a plan of motion to curb cash laundering and terror financing by the tip of 2019 however the deadline was prolonged in a while due to COVID-19 pandemic.
The digital FATF plenary might be held in Paris from February 22 to 25 to contemplate instances of assorted international locations on the gray listing, together with Pakistan, and a choice might be made on the conclusion of the conferences, Dawn newspaper reported.
In the final plenary held in October 2020, the FATF concluded that Pakistan will proceed in its “gray listing” until February 2021 as it has failed to fulfil six out of 27 obligations of the worldwide cash laundering and terrorist financing watchdog that embody failure to take motion in opposition to two of India’s most needed terrorists – Jaish-e Mohammad chief Maulana Masood Azhar and Jamaat-ud-Dawah head Hafiz Saeed.
Azhar and Saeed are most needed terrorists in India for his or her involvement in quite a few terrorist acts, together with 26/11 Mumbai terror assaults and bombing of a CRPF bus at Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir final 12 months.
An official supply shut to these developments instructed the paper on Saturday that Pakistan had complied with the six suggestions and likewise submitted particulars to the FATF secretariat.
The members would now consider Pakistan’s responses throughout the assembly, the supply mentioned, including that the choice can be taken after a consensus among the many members.
The paper, quoting a journalist overlaying the FATF mentioned that some European international locations, particularly the host France, had really helpful to the FATF to proceed to hold Pakistan on the gray listing and had taken the place that not all factors had been totally applied by Islamabad.
Other European international locations are additionally supporting France, he mentioned.
France was not pleased with the latest response of Islamabad on the cartoon concern, he mentioned.
Pakistan has not even posted an everyday ambassador in Paris, he mentioned, including that diplomatic and financial relations between the 2 international locations weren’t up to the mark.
The US has additionally expressed concern over the acquittal the accused in American journalist Daniel Pearl’s kidnapping and homicide case.
It is feared that the US may additionally foyer for continuation of Islamabad on the gray listing not less than till June this 12 months.
Pakistan’s Supreme Court final month ordered launch of British-born al-Qaeda terrorist Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and his three aides within the 2002 Pearl homicide case, a judgement denounced by the American journalist’s household as “an entire travesty of justice.”.
An official, who shouldn’t be keen to be quoted, instructed the paper that Pakistan had submitted a compliance report to the FATF.
“We can’t say what might be their response to it; let’s look forward to the day,” he mentioned.
The official mentioned Pakistan had already performed main laws relating to punishment of terror financing, which was round one 12 months within the previous laws.
In October 2020, Minister for Industries and Production Hammad Azhar, who’s the federal government’s level man on the FATF, introduced that Pakistan had made progress throughout all motion plan gadgets and had now largely addressed 21 of the 27 motion gadgets.
When the minister was approached for feedback on the implementation standing of the remaining six suggestions, he mentioned he would make no remark till the plenary was over.
“There is a strict confidentiality rule,” he mentioned.
With Pakistan’s continuation within the ‘gray’ listing, it’s more and more changing into tough for Islamabad to get monetary help from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the European Union, thus additional enhancing issues for the debt-ridden nation which is in a precarious monetary scenario.
