Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Saturday that there is no place to keep Pakistan on FATF’s ‘Grey List’ As it has implemented 26 out of 27 points of action assigned by the global body against money laundering and terror financing.
Qureshi’s remarks came a day after the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) retained Pakistan in its ‘grey list’ during its plenary meeting from June 21-25. Failed to investigate money laundering, leading to the financing of terrorism.
It also asked Islamabad to investigate and prosecute senior leaders and commanders of UN-designated terrorist groups, including Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar.
He said that whatever steps Pakistan took, it was in its own interest and added that it is in the interest of the country to stop money laundering and terror financing.
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Qureshi said that “some powers” want to keep Pakistan on the FATF’s “grey list” and it needs to be seen whether the global forum is being used for political purposes. However, he did not elaborate.
He said that the FATF itself has acknowledged that Pakistan has implemented 26 of the 27 action plans while significant progress has been made in 27.
He said, after implementing 26 out of 27 action plans of FATF, there is no place to keep Pakistan in the gray list.
He said it remains to be determined whether the FATF is a technical forum or a political one, state Radio Pakistan reported.
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Addressing a virtual press conference, FATF President Marcus Pleier said on Friday Pakistan government has failed To check the risk of money laundering, leading to corruption and terror financing.
“The FATF encourages Pakistan to continue making progress to address the financing of terrorism (CFT)-related items as soon as possible, indicating that terrorist financing (TF) investigations and prosecutions should be undertaken by senior UN leaders and commanders.” target terrorist groups,” a FATF statement said.
The UN-designated terrorists based in Pakistan include Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Azhar, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Saeed and its ‘operational commander’ Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.
Noting that Pakistan has now completed 26 action items out of 27 given to it in 2018, Plier said the FATF has asked Pakistan to take action against UN-designated terrorists.
Pakistan has been on the FATF gray list since June 2018 for deficiencies in its counter-terrorism financing and anti-money laundering regimes.
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