WHILE Pakistan has successfully got out of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list, there has been hardly any discussion on the list of 300 questions the global money-laundering and terrorist financing watchdog has asked India to reply to. India is facing this critical evaluation currently, and is at the risk of being in the grey list if it fails to answer the questions to the satisfaction of FATF.

The main issue is related to the actual intent of FATF in this regard. Will it really put India in the grey list, or will support from the United States bail India out? India is emerging as a decent economy that has the potential to influence larger economies owing to linkages and interlinkages. India also has friendly diplomatic relations with the US and other major economies for obvious reasons.

There was a hullabaloo around the world when Pakistan was struggling to get out of the grey list. India especially left no opportunity to malign Pakistan. Now, when India itself is in a tight spot, there is virtually complete silence globally.

One can make sense of the silence in the Indian media. One can also understand the silence in major world capitals. But what one cannot make sense of is the silence in Pakistani media. It is shocking, saddening and disappointing.

We know India has been involved in state terrorism, and its spy Kulbhushan Jadhav was involved in terrorism in Balochistan till he was captured inside Pakistan. It is yet to be seen if FATF will take such terrorist activities into consideration in its evaluation of India. But we would expect the national media in Pakistan to build up a narrative ahead of the evaluation that is due soon.

Sara Panhwar
Islamabad

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2023