Daily Times

As the crucial meeting on Pakistan’s future about the Financial Action Task Force is drawing closer, the government seeks Washington’s intervention to get it off the grey list of the forum which observes global money laundering and terror financing. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who is in the US, has discussed the issue with the hosts, saying he hoped the US would support Pakistan’s efforts to fight terror financing and money laundering at FATF’s Beijing meeting next month, paving its way for emerging off the grey list at a plenary meeting in Paris in April. Despite Pakistan’s best efforts , the forum has been giving tough times in meeting after meeting, mostly under the influence of the Indian lobby. Delhi has been at this game for a while now. This makes FATF’s composition political. The elements of politics can be judged from the previous meetings where Pakistan defied strict action by the body with the diplomatic help of Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia. Time to time, Pakistan has also raised the issue of Indian influence in this case. Under the prevailing circumstances, US intervention can rescue Pakistan from any future FATF fury. In the world of no free lunches, as the Pakistan Peoples’ Party suggested, Pakistan should attach its role in the ongoing US-Taliban dialogue with the matter. Pakistan has done a great deal of help to the US by bringing the reluctant Taliban to the negotiating table. Moreover, it is the time to remind US officials of their president’s word, that they would like to see Pakistan off the FATF gray list.

Other than diplomatic help, the government should keep pursuing its fight against money laundering and terror financing, which are mostly about banned groups and proscribed persons. Pakistan has taken several measures, sharing them with FATF officials time to time. Mostly, the world body is concerned about the nature of actions taken against seminaries affiliated with banned organisations or proscribed persons. Though the government has initiated lawsuits against banned outfits and proscribed people, litigation is moving at a snail’s pace because of poor prosecution. The government must take decisive steps against banned outfits not to satisfy the world body but for its own interest. *