Pakistan is expecting much-awaited welcome news as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is expected to remove Pakistan from its gray list during the two-day plenary session starting today in Paris.
Minister of State for External Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar is currently in Paris to attend the meeting.
The FATF will hold its first meeting on October 20-21 under the biennial chairmanship of T Rajakumar of Singapore.
“Delegates representing 206 members of the global network and observer organizations, including the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations, the World Bank, Interpol and the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units, will attend working group and plenary sessions in Paris.” said the Paris-based global watchdog on dirty money.
The watchdog will announce the results at a press conference after the meeting. The country has been on the neglect list for almost 52 months.
In September this year, a 15-member FATF inspection team and its Sydney-based regional affiliate, the Asia Pacific Group, left for Pakistan. The team members reviewed the country’s regulations and institutional mechanisms.
The FATF team examined the arrangements made by the Ministries, relevant departments, regulators and law enforcement agencies to verify whether these systems and procedures are effective against money laundering and terrorism. To deal with financial support was sustainable on a regular basis or not.
The FATF plenary will take the final decision after reviewing the assessment of the on-site team that visited Pakistan last month. Based on the team’s report, the FATF is expected to provide relief to Pakistan after confirming the country’s steps to implement the action plan.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar while talking to the media in Washington last week assured that Pakistan will soon come out of the gray list.
Pakistan and FATF
FATF placed Pakistan on its gray list in June 2018 due to deficiencies in the legal, financial, regulatory, investigative, prosecutorial, judicial and non-governmental sectors to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. Considered a serious threat to the system.
Islamabad has since tried to remove its name from the gray list. The FATF tasked Pakistan with implementing two different action plans simultaneously, and the country met the watchdog’s conditions.
In June this year, the FATF expressed satisfaction that the country had complied with all 34 points and recommended an on-site visit to verify progress by the country.
Islamabad has made high-level political commitments to address these deficiencies under a 27-point action plan. But later the number of action points was increased to 34. Since then, the country has been actively working with the FATF and its affiliates to strengthen its legal and financial systems against money laundering and terrorist financing to meet international standards in line with FATF’s 40 recommendations. can be accomplished. .
According to the Foreign Office, the focus of the visit was to reaffirm Pakistan’s high-level commitment and sustainability of reforms in the AML/CFT regime and [it] looked forward to the logical conclusion of the evaluation process. The report of the FATF on-site team will be discussed in FATF’s International Cooperation Review Group and plenary sessions.
Completion of the FATF/APG Action Plan for AML/CFT Effectiveness by the end of March 2022 was also an IMF structural benchmark and was achieved with a slight delay in June.
The government promised the IMF to review the implementation of AML/CFT controls by financial institutions in relation to the tax amnesty program for the construction sector by the end of June 2022 and promised “a timeline for the 2021 implementation of the APG. Lines will be met. Action plans, including a framework for mutual legal assistance, AML/CFT oversight, transparency of beneficial ownership information, and compliance with targeted financial sanctions for proliferation financing.”
