FATF keeps Pakistan in the grey list. India commended FATF for its decision. FATF is an inter-governmental body established in 1989 to combat terror funding.
New Delhi/Paris, February 21, 2020 (IANS) India on Friday commended Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for its decision to retain Pakistan in the punitive grey list because of its failure to curb terror funding.
The FATF, the global watchdog for terror funding, in its plenary meeting in Paris from February 16-21, noted that the Imran Khan government is yet to implement half of the 27-point action plan to crackdown on financial support to terror groups.
FATF keeps Pak in grey list
In a major setback, FATF not only kept Pakistan in the grey list, but also threatened to blacklist it if it failed to significantly end financial support to terror groups by June this year. The agreed deadline for compliance was already over in September 2019.
“Pakistan will continue in the grey list and all its propaganda and false claims, as in the past, to mislead its public and world at large about exiting the FATF grey list in February 2020 has been decisively proved false,” an official in New Delhi said.
Sources said the FATF has strongly asked Pakistan to swiftly complete its full action plan by June 2020. It has also warned Islamabad that if significant and sustainable progress especially in prosecuting and penalising terrorist financing, is not made by the June 2020 plenary, the FATF will black list it. That will result in FATF calling on its members and urging them to advise their financial institutions to withdraw investments from Pakistan.
Implication of FATF grey listing
Meanwhile, AIR News reported: With Pakistan’s continuation in the ‘Grey List’, it will be difficult for the country to get financial aid from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the European Union, thus further enhancing problems for the nation which is in a precarious financial situation. Pakistan was placed on the ‘Grey List’ by the FATF in June 2018 and was given a plan of action to complete by October 2019 or face the risk of being placed on the ‘Black List’.
The FATF is an inter-governmental body established in 1989 to combat money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system.
