The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meeting which ended in Paris on Friday did not include Pakistan in the list of countries which needed to do more on countering money laundering and combating financing for terrorism. Ethiopia, Iraq, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Vanuatu and Yemen were the countries included in the list issued by the global watchdog on money laundering and terrorism financing. Pakistan’s name was also absent from a joint statement issued by the regulator after the meeting. Similarly, Pakistan was not mentioned in a statement mentioning the outcomes of the FATF’s plenary meeting.
The temporary reprieve for Pakistan came after a day of utter confusion where Indian media and many international and local media groups reported that Pakistan has been put on the list. Earlier in the week, Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif had said that Pakistan had been given a three-month reprieve by the global watchdog. The foreign Minister had tweeted that Pakistan’s “efforts have paid (off)” and suggested that there had been “no consensus for nominating Pakistan”. However, he had also suggested that the meeting had proposed a “three months pause” and asked for the Asia Pacific Group, which is part of the FATF, to consider “another report in June”. The temporary reprieve means that Pakistan is still not ‘out of danger’ as it could still be included in the watch list in June this year. During the months leading up to June, government will work with FATF to build an “action plan” to plug the deficiencies identified by the watchdog, which will be put up for approval by consensus in the June session.
FATF is an inter-governmental body established in 1989 by the Ministers of its Member jurisdictions. The objectives of the FATF are to set standards and promote effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system. FATF also monitors the progress of its members in implementing necessary measures, reviews money laundering and terrorist financing techniques and counter-measures, and promotes the adoption and implementation of appropriate measures globally. In collaboration with other international stakeholders, the FATF works to identify national-level vulnerabilities with the aim of protecting the international financial system from misuse. Pakistan was previously on the FATF watch-list from 2012 to 2015.