Pakistan fulfilled all conditions to get out of grey list: FATF

ISLAMABAD: The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Friday announced that Pakistan has fulfilled all the conditions to get out of the grey list.

“Soon a FATF delegation will visit Pakistan. We will visit Pakistan viewing the situation of coronavirus,” said the FATF in a press release.

It said Pakistan had successfully acted upon 34 items of the FATF. However, it has not yet announced Pakistan’s removal from the grey list, despite fulfilling all the requirements.

The FATF said a couple of months before the Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) government’s taking over, Pakistan had made a high-level political commitment to work with the FATF to strengthen its Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (AML/CFT ) regime and to address its strategic deficiencies. It said Pakistan’s continued commitment during the PTI government’s tenure to combat terror financing and money laundering led to significant progress.

Read more: ‘Credit of Pakistan’s removal from FATF grey list goes to Hammad Azhar’

“Since June 2018, when Pakistan made a high-level political commitment to work with the FATF and APG to strengthen its AML/CFT regime and to address its strategic counter-terrorist financing-related deficiencies, Pakistan’s continued political commitment to combating both terrorist financing and money laundering has led to significant progress.

“In particular, Pakistan demonstrated that the terrorist financing (TF) investigations and prosecutions target senior leaders and commanders of UN designated terrorist groups and that there is a positive upwards trend in the number of ML investigations and prosecutions being pursued in Pakistan, in line with Pakistan’s risk profile,” the FATF said.

“In addition, Pakistan also largely addressed its 2021 action plan ahead of the set times. At its June 2022 Plenary, the FATF made the initial determination that Pakistan has substantially completed its two action plans, covering 34 items, and warrants an on-site visit to verify that the implementation of Pakistan’s AML/CFT reforms has begun and is being sustained, and that the necessary political commitment remains in place to sustain implementation and improvement in the future. The FATF will continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation and conduct an on-site visit at the earliest possible date,” the FATF said.

Meanwhile, Hammad Azhar tweeted that Pakistan had achieved a great landmark. The FATF rated Pakistan compliant on all 34 action items, he said adding that only two action items were outstanding and based on compliance done during Oct-March period, they had been cleared too. “All countries that exit grey list undergo onsite visit as per procedure,” he added.

Pak has today achieved a great landmark. FATF rated us compliant on all 34 action items. Only 2 action items were outstanding & based on compliance done during oct-march period, they have been cleared too. All countries that exit grey list undergo onsite visit as per procedure.

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— Hammad Azhar (@Hammad_Azhar) June 17, 2022

On the other hand, the FATF removed Malta from its grey list, around a year after labeling it an untrustworthy financial jurisdiction.

Earlier, without knowing the final decision of the FATF, formal federal minister for finance and revenue Shaukat Tarin on Friday said removal of Pakistan from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list was yet another feather in cap of Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) leader and former minister for economic affairs Hammad Azhar.

Shaukat Tarin asked that why former prime minister Imran Khan’s government was toppled, despite the PTI government’s handling every crisis deftly.

“After producing strong economic results in the last two years, successfully managing Covid and now the FATF, the question is why was Imran Khan’s govt changed?” he asked.

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