International News
FATF to put Pakistan on greylist for terror financing
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Friday decided to put Pakistan on the grey list, submitting it to intense scrutiny on terror financing.
(The FATF is an inter-governmental body established in 1989 by the ministers of its member jurisdictions. Its objectives are to set standards and promote effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system).
China withdrew its objection to the nomination, allowing consensus to go through, sources said.
Earlier this week, Pakistan claimed victory in the ongoing FATF meeting, as a preliminary discussion in the International Co-operation Review Group (ICRG) failed to build a consensus on putting it again on the watch list.
Claim ”premature”
However, U.S. and Indian officials had called the claim “premature” and said a final decision was still to come.
On Wednesday morning, Pakistan Foreign Minister Khawaja M. Asif, who was in Moscow at the time, tweeted that Pakistan had won a reprieve of three months in which to convince the international body not to put it on a “grey list” of countries where terror financing and black money laundering needed scrutiny.
Pakistan was on the FATF watch list from 2012 to 2015, then only on issues of money laundering.
“Our efforts paid [off],” Mr. Asif wrote, adding that the committee had proposed a three-month pause with another report to be considered in June.
According to reports in Pakistan newspapers, countries including China, Turkey and Saudi Arabia had not backed the resolution in the ICRG, which was originally supported by the U.S., Germany, the United Kingdom and France.
The case against Pakistan outlined the government’s inaction against outfits like U.N.-banned terror groups Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jamaat-ud-Dawa and its affiliate, the Falah-i-Insaaniyat Foundation.
