Pakistan Pins High Hopes To Get Out Of FATF Grey List As Plenary Session Starts Today

Thu Oct 20 2022
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Pakistan is pinning high hopes to get out of the grey list as the anti-terror financing watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), is all set to hold its two-day plenary session from Thursday (today) in Paris.

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar is currently in Paris to attend the FATP meeting.

“Delegates representing 206 members of the Global Network and observer organisations, including the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations, the World Bank, Interpol and the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units, will participate in the Working Group and Plenary meetings in Paris,” said the Paris-based global watchdog on dirty money.

The FATF will announce the outcome of the session after thorough deliberations and Pakistan is hoping to be taken off the notorious grey list after almost 52 months.

In September, a 15-member FATF inspection team and its Sydney-based regional affiliate, Asia Pacific Group, visited Pakistan to assess the measures the country has taken to curb terror financing.

Read More: Hina Rabbani Reaches Paris for FATF Meeting

During the visit, the FATF team minutely scrutinized the regime put in place by ministries, departments, regulators and law enforcement agencies to combat money laundering and terror financing.

Sources claimed that the FATF is expected to provide relief to Pakistan after evaluating its team’s report about the steps the country has taken to implement the plan of action.

The FATF placed Pakistan on its grey list in June 2018 for deficiencies in its legal, financial, regulatory, investigations, prosecution, judicial and non-government sectors to fight money laundering and combat terror financing considered a serious threat to the global financial system.

In June, the FATF expressed satisfaction that Pakistan has complied with all 34 points.

Islamabad made high-level political commitments to address these deficiencies under a 27-point action plan. But later the number of action points was enhanced to 34.

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