ISLAMABAD: Nearly a couple of weeks before a scheduled meeting of the Asia-Pacific Joint Group on Money Laundering, the National Counter Terrorism Authority has decided that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) will work in coordination with Nacta to accomplish the task of National Risk Assessment and asked the Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU) to prepare a consolidated report for the APG meeting.

The implementation of a Financial Action Task Force (FATF) action plan was discussed at a special meeting of the National Task Force on Countering Financing of Terrorism (CFT) held at the Nacta headquarters.

The 10th monthly meeting of the CFT, presided over by national coordinator for Nacta Dr Suleman Khan, was attended by the representatives of all 27 members of the task force comprising federal and provincial government departments as well as other organisations.

Financial Monitoring Unit asked to prepare a consolidated report for APG team

Earlier in June, the FATF — the international watchdog against money laundering and financing of terrorism — put Pakistan on a grey list titled “jurisdictions with strategic deficiencies”.

Dr Khan informed the participants that Nacta on the directives of the interior minister had set up the national task force on CFT with an elaborate mandate to coordinate the efforts to combat terror financing. The task force is represented by all stakeholders fighting against the financing of terrorism.

At the meeting, which mainly focused on the implementation of the FATF action plan, all the organisations which were required to implement the action plan gave their presentations and apprised the participants of the meeting of the actions taken by their organisations so far in this regard.

The presentations revolved around the enforcement of laws by the State Bank of Pakistan, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, FIA, Pakistan Customs and other organisations.

The meeting also reviewed measures to improve coordination between federal and provincial departments and law enforcement agencies.

A roadmap for the National Risk Assessment was discussed in detail at the meeting. Nacta has been actively playing its role and shall continue to contribute towards its national responsibilities while remaining within its mandate.

Since last year Nacta has been proactively coordinating with all national stakeholders dealing with FATF action plan and APG mutual evaluation exercise by holding comprehensive monthly meetings on the subject and coordinating with the stakeholders.

While it was decided that Nacta and the FIA would work together to accomplish the task of risk assessment, the FMU would deal with the issues related to transfer of money through legal channels. The FMU has the mandate to coordinate and monitor the transactions made through banking channels.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2018