PARIS: Although New Delhi attempted to push Pakistan into the FATF blacklist, many major countries maintained that Islamabad’s performance in the implementation of 27-point recommendations was commendable.
Nevertheless, since no voting will be done on Pakistan’s exit from the grey list as the period of stay in the list is at least two years, Pakistan will not exit the Grey List. While Pakistan requires a dozen votes out of 39 in order to exit Grey List and move to the white list, to avoid being put on the Black List, it needs support of three countries.
Pakistan has adopted an effective strategy in the financial sector to curb terror financing and enhanced cooperation between institutions to combat the transfer of funds to terrorists, yet Islamabad is expected to take measures for the implementation of 27 points by the month of October, 2020 in order to exit the Grey List.
A relevant piece
FATF: US says if Pakistan is blacklisted that would be devastating for its economic program.
26th January, 2020
WASHINGTON: During a briefing at the US Dept of State apropos her four-day sojourn in Pakistan Ambassador Alice Wells maintained that US strongly urged Islamabad to implement its FAFT action plan as IMF funding could get affected if Pakistan did not meet FATF regulations, if it is blacklisted, that would be devastating for Pakistan’s economic reform program and for its ability to attract investors.
She held: “It’s not a political process, but we certainly support and stand ready to assist Pakistan as it implements these obligations…FATF is a technical process. There has been an action plan that was presented to Pakistan. It’s a question of fulfilling the requirements that have been spelt out and that are asked of all countries in the international system. I welcomed efforts by Pakistan to meet its counter-terrorism financing obligations under FATF…We strongly encourage Pakistan to work with FATF and the international community to fully satisfy its action plan commitments. Completion of the FATF action plan is critical to Pakistan’s economic reform efforts, including its IMF [International Monetary Fund] program, as well as for demonstrating sustained and irreversible action against all militant groups based in Pakistan without distinction.”
Nevertheless, Alice Wells went on to state that: “Washington is pleased to see progress by Pakistan towards fulfilling FATF obligations. There is a meeting underway currently in Beijing where Pakistan is presenting its actions to the task force. And so I defer to that task force to make its evaluation. But the more evidence of Pakistan’s seriousness in both documenting its economy and in shrinking the space for militants to be able to take advantage of Pakistan’s either banking system or territory, the more confidence that the international community and business community will have in working with Pakistan. We’ve seen obvious progress in our relations with Pakistan, from the high-level engagement such as the President’s warm and constructive meeting with Prime Minister Khan at Davos to the restoration of the International Military Education and Training programs.”
Newspakistan.tv
