LAHORE: PML-N President and opposition leader in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif has asked the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to clarify that it is not being used against Pakistan at the behest of others (India).

“Indian External Affairs Minister’s admission that the Modi government “ensured” that Pakistan stays on the grey list raises serious questions on the integrity of FATF’s decision-making process,” Mr Shehbaz said in a tweet on Monday.

“The watchdog must clarify that it is not being used against Pakistan at the behest of others,” he asked.

Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Sunday that India had “ensured” that Pakistan remained on the grey list of the FATF. “We have been successful in pressuring Pakistan and the fact that its behaviour has changed is because of pressure put by India by various measures,” the Indian minister said.

Last month, the FATF – the global body working to combat financing of terrorism and money laundering – had announced its decision to retain Pakistan on its grey list despite the country meeting 26 of the 27 conditions and handed it over a new six-point action plan, keeping Islamabad exposed to global pressure tactics.

The FATF has encouraged Pakistan to continue to make progress to address as soon as possible the one remaining CFT (combating the financing of terrorism) related item by demonstrating that terror financing investigations and prosecutions target senior leaders and commanders of UN-designated terrorist groups.

Published in Dawn, July 20th, 2021