ISLAMABAD: The Finance Action Task Force (FATF) on Friday kept Pakistan in ‘grey list’ despite the country has made significant progress of addressing 26 action plan out of 27.
FATF President Dr Marcus Pleyer in a press conference announced that Pakistan will continue to remain on the increased monitoring list, also known as the grey list.
Admitting the performance of the country FATF President Dr Marcus Pleyer said: “Pakistan has made significant progress and it has largely addressed 26 out of 27 measures.”
Pleyer, however, added that the action plan on financial terrorism still needed to be addressed.
“In 2019, the regional partner of FATF identified problems in Pakistan’s anti-money laundering measures. But since then it has improved. There remains risk of money laundering and subsequently FATF had discussions with Pakistan.
“I want to thank the Pakistan government for their continued commitment to address the concerns and make the necessary changes they were asked to effect,” Pleyer said.
The FATF president said all action plan items needed to be addressed and goals fulfilled for countries to exit the grey list.
“All countries are equal. This is also our expectation from the Pakistan government.”
In its last presser following a plenary, on Feb 25, FATF President Dr Marcus Pleyer had said Pakistan remained under increased monitoring, adding, “while Islamabad has made significant progress, there remained some serious deficiencies in mechanisms to plug terrorism financing”.
Pakistan has been on the FATF’s grey list for deficiencies in its counter-terror financing and anti-money laundering regimes since June 2018.
Until the last assessment, Pakistan was found deficient in acting against organisations allegedly linked to the terror groups listed by the UN Security Council, prosecuting and convicting banned individuals and tackling smuggling of narcotics and precious stones.
