THE political parties these days are busy claiming to be behind the self-proclaimed ‘victory’ over the mere acknowledgement by Financial Action Task Force (FATF) President Dr Marcus Pleyer that Pakistan has met all 34 conditions on two separate action plans. This is despite the fact that the ‘watchdog’ is yet to take Pakistan off its so-called grey list, and will now schedule an on-site visit for verification of the country’s money-laundering and counterterrorism financing mechanism.

Pleyer did not mince words and was pretty clear when he said Pakistan was not being removed from the ‘grey list, and it would have to ensure during the FATF visit that it has effectively tackled relevant issues.

What bothers the mind is that no country or individual can actually indulge in money-laundering without there being someone at the ‘other end’. We have seen billions of dollars being invested in London’s property market which caused quite a stir in the British financial circles. The FATF has callously closed its eyes over the United Kingdom, which was the recipient country. Why?

It is common knowledge that the CIA had flooded Pakistan with legal/illegal dollars during the Soviet-Afghan war. As soon as Soviet army retreated from Afghanistan, the Americans also left the war-ravaged, landlocked country in a precarious situation, leaving Pakistan behind to manage a multitude of problems alone.

In a geopolitical summersault, the United States changed the definition of ‘mujahideen’ and declared them ‘terrorists’; the very people who were once invited to the White House by the American president during the Cold War.

This was the time when the US-UK-India nexus started strangulating Pakistan on one pretext or the other. The so-called global watchdogs and international organisations, such as the FATF, the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the World Bank (WB), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), are nothing but tools in the hands of those who actually rule the world. They use these tools to bring strategically important countries to their knees.

It is a known fact that FATF has let many countries go off the hook, although they had done far less to reform their financial regimes. Why?

Although FATF has conceded that Pakistan has met all conditions, it is too early to celebrate anything, for there is always a chance that the country might remain under intense monitoring. This is obviously because such watchdogs are there only for putting pressure through various tactics on countries that are not submissive or are considered a threat to the cabal’s interests.

Abid Mahmud Ansari
Islamabad

Published in Dawn, June 23rd, 2022