Pakistan ready to give compliance report to FATF
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will present its compliance report to the next meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) scheduled to take place in Paris from October 12 to 15, but there are fears that it may fall below the expectations wit h r e g ards t o what was expected.
Economic affairs minister Hammad Azhar will present the report. The Pakistani delegation is scheduled to leave for France on October 13 as Pakistan’s case will be taken up on October 14-15.
Despite the optimism shown by the Pakistani side, it is feared that the FATF would not accept the level of compliance that Pakistan says it has attained. The cutoff date for Pakistan to show improvement was October 2018 and Islamabad insists that it made a lot of progress during the past year.
The Mutual Evaluation Report of 2019 has not agreed with Pakistan’s assessment that it faces “medium” category risks of money laundering and terrorism financing.
KHAN MAY VISIT SAUDI, IRAN TO END TENSIONS Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is likely to visit Iran and Saudi Arabia later this month as part of Islamabad’s efforts to defuse the increasing tensions in West Asia, according to a media report.
Quoting foreign office sources, The Express Tribune reported that Khan is likely to visit Tehran and Riyadh later this month to mediate between Iran and Saudi. However, the dates are yet to be finalised. Pakistan traditionally has strong relations with Saudi Arabia but also maintains friendly ties with Iran.
MUSHARRAF’S PLEA SHOT DOWN BY COURT The Islamabad high court on Thursday rejected a plea by former president Pervez Musharraf to dismiss the FIR registered against him over the murder of Ghazi Abdur Rasheed, a cleric of Lal Masjid where an army operation was carried out in 2007.
Earlier this month, the same court dismissed a petition by Musharraf seeking to remove sections of Anti-terrorism Act in a judges’ detention case.