Pakistan to submit the compliance report in FATF meeting

The meeting of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is underway in Paris where Pakistan will submit its compliance report.

Pakistan economic affairs minister Hammad will present the compliance report which suggest the Pakistan’s efforts to tackle terror-financing and money laundering.

Officials of Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), National Counter Terrorism Authority (NECTA), State Bank, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and Ministry of Finance are also present to attend the meeting.

The report is among the materials which suggest whether the FATF plenary will retain Pakistan in the grey list or demote it to the black list.

The main agenda of this meeting is to scrutinize if Pakistan should be blacklisted, which could have enormous economic impact on the country including a $6-billion bailout package program by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Pakistan was placed on the grey list last year. Pakistan had secured three votes needed to avoid inclusion in a blacklist. China, Turkey and Malaysia voted in favor of Pakistan.

Earlier, Adviser on Finance Abdul Hafeez Sheikh has said that Government is working in union to ensure that Pakistan comes out of FATF grey list at the earliest.

He said that the current account deficit has been reduced to the record level. For this, government struck agreements with the friendly countries as well as IMF, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

Abdul Hafeez Sheikh said that the government has overcome the fiscal and trade deficits.

Trade deficit witnessed a decrease of 35% fiscal deficit thirty six percent during the first quarter of current fiscal year, he added.