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The FATF in its meeting held on February 16-21 in Paris decided to maintain Pakistan's status on its 'grey list' of countries with inadequate control over curbing money laundering and terrorism financing until June, when the next review will take place.
Pakistan’s Finance Division said that the country has made "significant progress" in the implementation of the 27-point FATF Action Plan, which was demonstrated by the completion of nine additional action items.
Pakistan was placed by Financial Action Task Force on its grey in June 2018 and was given a plan of action or face the risk of being placed on the blacklist.
Pakistan in an attempt to fulfill the FATF requirements had also followed the instructions of UN sanctions committee and recently arrested the heads of some banned outfits.
President of South Asian Strategic Stability Institute (SASSI) University Maria Sultan, talking to IRNA that the FATF is not actually a counter terrorism financing tool as it is projected to be. She said it is in fact part of a larger sanctions regime which is used by the Breton wood system and the powers associated with it, in short a US led Financial instrument to pursue a policy of coercive diplomacy.
She said it is not a UN body but an independent treaty signed by 41 states only and does not include the leaders such as US.
“The IMF and world bank use the FATF conditionality to penalize the banking infrastructure of countries like Pakistan in order to have compliance in other areas such as counter terrorism,” viewed Maria Sultan.
She added in short it is neither an accurate instrument to determine the efforts made by the states under stress nor a reflection of the steps taken by the states or the limitations present in the system it is an economic coercion tool of the alliance of the willing.
Former Pakistani envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and senior analyst Ali Sarwar Naqvi told IRNA that despite sincere efforts of Pakistan to fulfill the FATF requirements keeping the country into its grey list is highly unfair.
Executive Director of the Center for International Strategic Studies (CISS) said that there is no doubt that Pakistan has taken stringent measures on terror financing and money laundering.
He noted that Pakistan has fulfilled most of the requirements of the FATF but it has not given the country a clean chit over the grey list matter.
He added that this is basically a political decision to keep Pakistan under pressure. Former diplomat went on to say that one can see the open bias and prejudice of the FATF in its decisions towards Iran and Pakistan.
Senior defense analyst Lieutenant General (Retd) Amjad Shoaib Speaking to IRNA said the FATF is putting pressure on Pakistan on the behest of the western powers.
“They want to keep our economy under pressure,” he said. He added that everybody knows that how much sincerely Pakistan is implementing the FATF agenda.
The analyst said that Pakistan knowing that this is a political move has taken it a positively to show the world that we are law abiding state.
Amjad Shoaib said why the FATF is not asking other countries to take effective measure on terror financing and money laundering.
“The FATF is tool of big powers for arm twisting of other states and pressurize their economies,” he noted.
Meanwhile the Chinese foreign ministry had said that a majority of FATF members had recognized Pakistan's efforts to improve its counter-terrorism financing (CTF) regime at the financial watchdog's latest plenary meeting.
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