Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Wednesday Pakistan has fulfilled almost all the technical requirements of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to get off its grey list.

He said that Pakistan had been given a 27-point action plan to fulfill. Work on 26 points has been completed, he added. “In this situation, there is no justification to keep Pakistan on the grey list,” he said. He added that India wanted to use the forum for “political purposes” but should not be allowed to do so.

He said Pakistan has taken concrete steps to curb money-laundering and terrorist financing.

Pakistan has made progress on the 26 points of the FATF action plan. Earlier, sources said that the FATF has asked Pakistan to implement the 27-point action plan and the review group having China, United States, United Kingdom, France, and India as its members will review Pakistan’s progress on the watchdog’s recommendations.

“Any decision on pulling Pakistan out of the grey list or maintaining it on the list will be motivated by political grounds,” they said adding that the review group’s report on progress made by Pakistan will be tabled before FATF Plenary meeting that was scheduled to take place from June 21. The outcomes of the FATF Plenary will be published on June 25 (Friday), at the close of the meeting.

Earlier this month, The Asia Pacific Group (APG) on Money Laundering improved Pakistan’s rating on 21 of the 40 technical recommendations of the FATF against money laundering and terror financing, but retained it on ‘Enhanced Follow-up’ for sufficient outstanding requirements.

In its last meeting in February, the FATF had urged Pakistan to address three strategically important deficiencies related to investigations and prosecutions of terrorism-financing cases.