Pakistan receives FATF questionnaire comprising on 150 queries

Pakistan has received a questionnaire from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), comprising on 150 questions, here on Saturday.

According to the details, the FATF has sent a set of questions to Islamabad in which they asked in details regarding the actions that have been taken to achieve the targets set by the intergovernmental organization.

The FATF has demanded Pakistan to sentence those who are associated with the banned outfits and summoned copies of cases registered against the outlawed organizations.

In the questionnaire, details have also been asked about legal steps taken concerning religious seminaries.

It has been learnt that the questionnaire has been sent in response to Islamabad’s report that had been forwarded to the FATF on December 3.

The Force has set a timeline of January 8 for Pakistan’ response.

Sources said that Pakistan will inform the FATF, in its response about its recent actions to curb money laundering and terror financing.

This will include the scrutiny of the Rs4 trillion deposits of four million Pakistanis placed with the Central Directorate of National Savings.

Islamabad will also tell the FATF about its efforts to curb illegal cross-border movement of currency.

The country has stepped up its crackdown on proscribed outfits after the FATF announced in October this year.

It was retaining the country on its grey list till February 2020 after which it might face action including being blacklisted.

This month, an anti-terrorism court in Lahore has indicted Hafiz Saeed, the head of the banned Jamaatud Dawa (JuD), in two cases on charges of financing terrorism.

He was also indicted on similar charges in another case on Dec 11, was presented in an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore.

Defence lawyer Imran Gill said the second case was related to Saeed’s charity operations. “The charities the accused ran collected illegal funds,” Watto said.

Saeed is the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), or the Army of the Pure, allegedly  militant group blamed by the United States and India for the four-day Mumbai siege in which 160 people were killed Foreigners, including Americans, were among the dead.