Pakistan should apply for full FATF membership: Hammad Azhar

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Hamad Azhar said Pakistan’s removal from the FATF grey list was not the success of any single person but the entire nation.

The former economic affairs minister led the task force on the implementation of FATF Action Plans during the previous PTI government.

Addressing a press conference, Hammad Azhar said the PTI government submitted a report on the implementation of a 27-point action plan and separate five points from 2018 till April 2022. He commended all institutions involved in successfully implementing the action plan.

Azhar said that Pakistan was blacklisted in February 2018 and even before the country did not have a good track record with the global watchdog. “Pakistan’s record in FATF was not good. Every time I went to FATF, PTI’s initiatives were appreciated,” he said.

He said in April this year, the government had submitted its report on the action plan after which the FATF team came to Pakistan and analyzed the report submitted by the PTI government. He said that PDM had opposed thirteen laws of FATF which were enacted into legislation despite their opposition.

He said Pakistan should now apply for FATF membership after coming out of the grey list. He said that if Pakistan was blacklisted by FATF then it would have serious repercussions and affect our ranking in the world.

He said that the beneficiaries account was registered in the country, system of banking transactions has been modernized and our laws are the best in the world against money laundering He said within a span of three years, laws were made against money laundering.,

He cautioned against repeating the mistakes of the past. He said the FATF has harmed us as the requirements of the world are increasing and we will also have to modernize the system.

Earlier in a tweet, Hammad Azhar gave credit to the previous PTI-led government for Pakistan’s exit from FATF grey list.

“From October 2018 till March 2022, Pakistan completed all action items relating to FATF dual scrutiny. Credit goes to our fantastic team of officers in centre [and] provinces from an array of government divisions,” he said.

Former finance minister Shaukat Tarin also lauded the efforts of Hammad Azhar for taking Pakistan out of the FATF greylist.

“Due credit should go to the establishment, Federal Board of Revenue, and State Bank of Pakistan who worked together to achieve this difficult task,” he wrote.

PTI leader Imran Ismail said that the credit for the achievement goes to the PTI government and the team led by former prime minister Imran Khan who worked tirelessly.

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