What happened: After a five-day plenary meeting, The Financial Action Task Force in a press conference on Friday presented the verdict of Pakistan to remain on the grey list.
Background: Pakistan has been on FATF’s ‘increased monitoring list’ which is also known as the grey list since 2018 for deficiencies in it’s counter-terror financing and anti-money laundering regimes. On the last plenary press conference in February, President of FAFT, Dr. Marcus Pleyer, stated “Islamabad has made significant progress, there remained some serious deficiencies in mechanisms to plug terrorism financing. We strongly urge completion of the plan by Pakistan.” Though the foreign minister a few days back stated the financial watchdog has no justification to keep Pakistan on the grey list as per the recent progress. He further added that “We had been given 27 points in the FATF Action Plan, out of which work on 26 has been completed”. However, the President announced the decision and stated “Pakistan has made significant measures and it has largely addressed 26 out of 27 measures.” and further stressed that Pakistan must improve their investigations and prosecutions of all groups and entities financing terrorists and their associates and show [that] penalties by courts are effective. Click here to see more from ProperGaanda.