ISLAMABAD: Foreign Officer Spokesperson Dr Muhammad Faisal on Thursday said that there was no chance of Pakistan being placed on Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) black list.
Addressing weekly news briefing in Islamabad on Thursday, he said that Pakistan will implement the action plan negotiated with the FATF, while remaining in the grey list, to address concerns of the international community.
The spokesman said that we are afraid of Human Rights Commissioner and Inquiry Commission’s visit to Pakistan, adding that Indian should also give the Commission permission to visit Kashmir.
Muhammad Faisal further regretted European Union s approach of ignoring gross human rights violations in Indian occupied Kashmir as was reported by UN Commissioner s report on human rights.
He called upon the EU countries to support UN report on gross violations of human rights in occupied Kashmir by the Indian forces.
Commenting on the situation in Afghanistan, the spokesperson said that a peaceful and stable Afghanistan is in the best interest of Pakistan as well as the entire region. “Pakistan has always supported an Afghan owned and Afghan-led peace process,” he added.
Earlier, Financial Action Task Force (FATF) had placed Pakistan on grey list during FATF Plenary in Paris for not acting against terror financing on its soil.
The United States, Britain, Germany and France voted in favour of placing Pakistan on grey list during FATF meeting while Pakistan’s closest allies Turkey, China and Saudi Arabia also backed them.
Caretaker finance minister Shamshad Akhtar along with senior officials of the financial monitoring unit was in Paris to defend Pakistan.
Ahead of the latest meeting, Pakistan took steps in keeping with FATF regulations. On June 20, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan issued the Anti Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Regulations 2018, in compliance with FATF recommendations.
On June 8, Pakistan s National Security Committee (NSC) also reaffirmed its commitment to cooperate with FATF in its fight against terrorist financing and money laundering.
The FATF is an inter-governmental body established in 1989 to combat money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system. NNI
