Daily Times

Pakistan’s interim Finance Minister Dr Shamshad Akhtar Monday reached Paris where the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) would decide after the six-day meeting whether the country should be placed on the blacklist of countries that financially aid terrorism.

The interim finance minister was accompanied by officials from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Finance Ministry and the Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU).

The Pakistani delegation would inform the anti-money laundering and terror financing watchdog of the action plan drafted to avoid sanctions.

Amid increasing global pressure to move decisively against proscribed organisations, Pakistan had reviewed its new draft action plan for submission to global bodies working on curbing money laundering and terror financing.

The decision to place Pakistan on the global money-laundering watchdog’s grey list was made during a FATF plenary meeting in February this year.

Ahead of the latest meeting, the country had taken several steps in keeping with FATF regulations.

On June 20, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan issued Anti Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Regulations 2018, in compliance with FATF recommendations.

Earlier on June 8, the National Security Committee (NSC) reaffirmed its commitment to cooperate with FATF. “The committee reaffirmed the commitment of the country to work with FATF and other international organisations in achieving common goals and shared objectives,” a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office on the NSC meeting had said.

Pakistan was earlier placed on the FATF grey list from 2012 to 2015.

FATF is a global body that combats terrorist financing and money laundering. Pakistan has been scrambling in recent months to avoid being added to a list of countries deemed non-compliant with anti-money laundering and terrorist financing regulations by the FATF, a measure that officials fear can hurt its economy.

Published in Daily Times, June 26^th 2018.