FATF team in Pak to assess govt actions

ISLAMABAD: A delegation from the Asia Pacific Group (APG), an arm of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), is visiting Pakistan to assess steps taken by the country to counter terror financing and money laundering since it was placed on the watchdog’s “grey list” in June.

The APG team on money laundering arrived in Pakistan on Sunday for a 12-day “on-site inspection”, during which it will review systems, networks and mechanisms of institutions and agencies to ascertain if Pakistan is following up on its commitment to get out of the watch list, the Dawn newspaper reported.

The nine-member delegation includes experts from Scotland Yard, the US treasury department, the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Maldives, the Indonesian finance ministry, Peoples’ Bank of China and the justice department of Turkey. Three members of the team will stay in Pakistan to review progress made by local authorities on a 10-point action plan.

The FATF decided in February to place Pakistan on its grey list in June following a push by the US and its allies for not doing enough to ban UN- and US-designated individuals and entities and rein in their activities.

In August, the APG, as part of a mutual evaluation, identified a series of deficiencies in Pakistan’s anti-money laundering and counter-terror financing laws and mechanisms.

The two sides will jointly go through technical compliance using various legislative, administrative and regulatory instruments. There are also some tasks related to extradition treaties Pakistan has signed with other countries or where these treaties do not exist at all and how these can be revised to include terror financing and money laundering offences.

The local media reported Pakistan will try to convince the visiting team that it has done enough to block terror financing, including hundi and hawala.