Pakistan To Be On FATF Grey List Till June 2020

In a major setback for Pakistan, the country will remain on the FATF Grey List till June 2020. The decision was taken by the anti-money laundering watchdog after the conclusion of the February 16-21 group meetings and plenary in Paris.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in October decided to keep Pakistan on its Grey List for failure to curb funneling of funds to terror groups Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed and others.

Pakistan is already finalising major amendments to at least a dozen of its laws to meet the FATF requirements by June this year and sentenced Mumbai attack mastermind and JuD chief Hafiz Saeed to 11 years in two cases of terror financing on February 12.

Saeed, a UN designated terrorist whom the US has placed a $10 million bounty on, was arrested on July 17 in the terror financing cases. The 70-year-old fiery cleric is lodged at the high-security Kot Lakhpat jail in Islamabad.

Based on these steps, the country’s performance would be judged in the next FATF plenary in October 2020, the report said.

Pakistan submitted a 650-page review report to the FATF on January 8. The report was submitted in response to 150 questions raised by the FATF regarding new Pakistani policies on money laundering. The report outlined the steps taken by Pakistan between October 2019 and January 2020 to implement the group’s recommendations.

In January, Pakistan urged the US to support its bid to exit FATF’s grey list ahead of a key meeting of the international terror financing watchdog in Beijing, in which Islamabad’s efforts to adopt stricter laws against terror financing and money laundering were scrutinised.