Daily Times

A senior-level Pakistani delegation led by Minister for Economic Affairs Division Hammad Azhar attended two days face-to-face meetings with Asia-Pacific Joint Group of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to discuss Pakistan’s progress on FATF action plan.

The delegation effectively presented Pakistan’s progress on each of the FATF action plan items and provided additional information/clarification to the group, a press statement issued by the Finance Ministry on Wednesday said. The minister conveyed government’s strong commitment to implement the international anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) standards and reaffirmed Pakistan’s unequivocal commitment to work with international community in the fight against money laundering, terrorism financing and other financial crimes, the statement read.

As per FATF’s procedures, the group will present its report at the FATF plenary and working group meetings scheduled from October 13-18 in Paris. The APG has 40 recommendations for the AML standards and another eight for the CFT. Pakistan is currently being monitored at three different but interlinked levels – APG, the United States and the FATF – that will determine the country’s possible exit from the FATF grey list. Given significant progress on its 10-point action plan on 27 different standards, authorities expect to secure a couple of months of grace period to be fully compliant when the country comes under final review of the FATF by mid-October.

Last month, Prime Minister Imran Khan had set up a high-powered 12-member National FATF Coordination Committee to ensure execution of all FATF-related tasks till Dec 1. Led by economic affairs minister, the coordination committee comprises three secretaries, heads of some institutions and three officials from the GHQ.