Daily Times

“The FATF takes note of the significant progress made on the entire action plan. To date, Pakistan has made progress across all action plan items and has now largely addressed 24 of the 27 action items. As all action plan deadlines have expired, the FATF strongly urges Pakistan to swiftly complete its full action plan before June 2021.”

The above statement in February 2021 changed the course for Pakistan‘ geopolitical standing and its international relations. The event was followed by a series of statements by Premier Imran Khan and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi amid great confusion in the national media.

Truth be told, Pakistan has come a long way from 2009 when the country barely had any monitoring and evaluation mechanism in place. We had made significant progress in countering money laundering and terror financing even in 2019. Most readers must understand that the so-called “structural deficiency” required a complete overhaul of legal and financial systems in collaboration with the State Bank of Pakistan, Law Enforcement Agencies, and various independent organisations like the Research Society of International Law (RSIL). This truly is a magnanimous achievement on its own.

Going quickly over the acts and laws that Pakistan introduced by the government will help us uncover the truth behind FATF.

Imagine a country like Pakistan, with all its societal complexities, being asked to convert all of the madras into schools

In 2020, Pakistan amended 15 laws, including the Anti-terrorism Act 1997 and the Anti-Money Laundering Act 2010. These were supported by introducing over 30 regulations to enhance the impact in the post-implementation phase. The amendments made were not only in compliance with the FATF recommendations but also in consideration with United Nations Security Council Resolutions. Terror Financing Sanctions (TFS) were incorporated into all new regulations by all authorities, with severe consequences for noncompliance. Despite the severe economic challenges, the government of Pakistan has taken massive actions to formalise the banking sector and regularise remittances and international financial transactions.

Despite compliance on 26 out 27 recommendations and solid performance, adding to the blacklist and the financial exclusion risk for Pakistan remains a grave possibility. One must ask, what is the real reason for this bias and unjust attitude towards the country? Also, I truly want to shed light on what is being hinted at, but none has openly spoken about it. I want to dive deep into understanding if FATF is a “technical platform or a political one.”

With its headquarters in Paris, France, FATF has emerged as a stringent Anti Money Laundering and Counter Terror Financing organisation. Its members are required to go through a customised plan provided by the FATF members within a given time frame to demonstrate their commitment to the cause and move to the general review category. However, the 27-points recommendation provided to Pakistan has been regarded as one of the most “ambitious” plans yet. It was almost a recipe for disaster handed over to the country. Imagine a country like Pakistan, with all its societal complexities, being asked to convert all of the madras into schools. This one condition is an uphill task that will require major participants of the government, opposition, religious leaders and educationists to collaborate and devise a plan that meets FATF requirements and guarantees a permanent solution to structure the Madaras system in Pakistan.

One must ask why the Financial Action Task Force is concerned with the Madaras culture in Pakistan? The answer is right before our eyes. France has one of the strictest reactions to the Islamic way of life and has been seen to come up with various regulations and policies that stem from Islamophobia, including the Hijab ban and more. Over 5 million Muslims reside in France. Making 8.5 per cent of the population struggle with employment, made to live in poverty while their living areas are demarcated is a practice best described as “territorial, social, and ethnic apartheid.” A country with little or no regard for its residents based on their religious belief would naturally come hard on a country like Pakistan.

Unfortunately, Pakistan’s poor international image has always presented itself as a major challenge. Even though according to global statistics released in 2019, Pakistan is the fifth most-affected country because of terrorism. We have paid a huge price in terms of finances and lives lost, yet the international scrutiny worsens for Pakistan. Also, the lack of Pakistan’s legal and law enforcement system has had the worse impact. As international demands quickly evolve, countries like Pakistan face a hard time keeping up with this evolution. This is particularly true with the 6 new recommendations by FATF right after the 2019 evaluation.

Now what is most concerning is India’s role in this situation. Currently, under the rule of the fascist Hindu government, India has shown no regard for Muslims living in the country. Of course, our arch-rival, driven by its strong Hindutva philosophy, has used every chance against Pakistan to its advance and FATF is no different. There is a plethora of evidence against BJP & RSS’ false accusations of terrorism on Pakistan, including the Jammu Airbase attack, the Pathankot attack, the self-created Pulwama Attacks or the insidiously orchestrated Mumbai attacks. Yet, the international players have always ignored our side of the story.

Moving back to the FATF scenario, another news that the Pakistani media should have highlighted (but it failed to see the light of the day) was Pakistan’s law enforcement agencies’ consistent plea to share information and cooperate in the matters of ML/TF where it had no jurisdiction. According to the government, Pakistan has made over 232 official requests for cooperation and information exchange but all in vain. It almost seems that the world wants to see us fail at our every effort towards clearing our name out of the FATF grey list! Now we must know that all of these requests were raised under the Mutual Legal Assistance act that enforces countries to collaborate in the matters of possible terror threats.

Not only this, but Pakistan also reported the international behaviour to FATF officials, but it seems to have no official response on the matter. Countries like UAE, Afghanistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Switzerland and more who received these requests all failed to respond and cooperate on critical issues such as MVTs, extortion, smuggling, narcotics and more. One would assume that these are matters of international concern; however, the casual behaviour of the world shows otherwise.

So there we have it, France’s own biases against Muslims and Pakistan, the Indian narrative that seems to be given more weightage, and the uncooperative international behaviour are what is truly happening behind the curtain. The government must do a better job at pleading its case in the international media; it is about time that we and the media stand behind the government to ensure that the world hears our side of the story, acknowledges our efforts and commits more collaboration and implementation.

The writer is Special Advisor (Pakistan Institute of Management, Lahore operated under Federal Ministry of Industries and Production, Islamabad) and Foreign Research Associate (Centre of Excellence, China Pakistan Economic Corridor, Islamabad). He can be reached at hassnain.javed@hotmail.com