FATF retains Pakistan on its grey list, adds 4 new countries

Global terror watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Thursday announced that Pakistan will continue to remain on its grey list due to failure to comply with all the points of a plan of action set by it to combat terror financing.

The FATF said that there had been serious deficiency on the part of Pakistan in checking terror financing and hence it will continue to remain on the “increased monitoring list”, another name for the “Grey List”.

Key Highlights

• The Paris-based FATF had placed Pakistan on the grey list in June 2018 and asked Islamabad to implement a plan of action to curb money laundering and terror financing by the end of 2019 but the deadline was extended later on due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
• FATF president Marcus Pleyer said, “Pakistan will remain under increased monitoring as serious deficiencies remain related to terror financing. While Pakistan has taken important steps, there are three important points from 27 action points remaining to be acted upon.”
• The FATF said that Pakistan courts must give effective, decisive and proportionate punishment to those involved in terrorism, a statement which comes close on the heels of Pakistan Supreme Court’s acquittal of terrorist Omar Saeed Sheikh, the main accused in the 2002 murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl.
• Among the UN-designated terrorists are India’s most wanted terrorists such as Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed and the outfit’s operational commander, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.
• Azhar, Saeed and Lakhvi are most wanted terrorists in India for their involvement in numerous terrorist acts, including the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks and the 2019 bombing of a CRPF bus in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama.
• The terror financing watchdog said that Pakistan must complete three unfulfilled tasks and once it is completed, the FATF will verify and take a decision on its present status in the next plenary to be held in June.
• The decision was taken after a thorough review of Pakistan’s performance in fulfilling the global commitments and standards in the fight against money-laundering and terror-financing.

SOURCE: The Hindu, India Today

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