ISLAMABAD: The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Friday officially notified Pakistan on its ‘grey list’.
“FATF has identified Pakistan as a jurisdiction with strategic AML/CFT (anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism) deficiencies,” a statement issued by the FATF from Paris said.
The decision to put Pakistan on the grey list had been taken at the FATF’s last plenary in February; however, it took effect after Pakistan successfully negotiated an action plan for overcoming those deficiencies.
“The country has developed an action plan with the FATF to address the most serious deficiencies,” the statement said.
The Foreign Office said on Thursday that the action plan had been successfully negotiated with the FATF.
The National Security Council had earlier this month extended the commitment to implement the action plan.
The FATF requires high-level political commitment from the country concerned to implement the needed legal, regulatory and operational reforms.
In its statement, the FATF said that it welcomed “the high level political commitment of Pakistan to their action plan”.
The deficiencies identified in Pakistani anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regime included inadequate monitoring and regulatory mechanisms, low conviction rate on unlawful transactions, poor implementation of United Nations Security Council resolutions 1267 and 1373 and cross-border illicit movement of currency by terrorist groups.
Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2018
