Pak stays on terror funding ‘grey list’
Escapes new FATF sanctions, final decision on Friday
A sub-group of the global anti-terror watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Tuesday recommended continuation of Pakistan in the ‘Grey List’ for its failure to check terror funding and a final decision will be taken on February 21, according to news agency reports.
The decision was reportedly taken at a meeting of the FATF’s International Co-operation Review Group (ICRG), held at the ongoing Paris plenary. “The ICRG meeting, sub group of the FATF, has recommended to retain Pakistan in the ‘Grey List’. A final decision will be taken on Friday when the FATF takes up issues concerning Pakistan,” sources were quoted as stating. Other government sources meanwhile told this newspaper that any decision by a sub-group would have to be placed before the FATF plenary for endorsement.
Pakistan is trying to
wriggle out of the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force by September this year.
The FATF had recently said that “from Sunday February 16, more than 800 representatives from 205 countries and jurisdictions
around the world, the IMF, UN, World Bank and other organisations, will arrive for FATF Week in Paris, France”, and that there will be “six days of meetings which will focus on global action to follow the money that fuels crime and terrorism”. It had also added that “progress by Pakistan and other countries that present a risk to the financial system” will be evaluated.
New Delhi is also keeping a close watch on developments and will be reminding the world about how Pakistan has failed to live up to its promises of ending support to terror groups.
Pakistan is trying to wriggle out of the grey list with the help of its allweather friend China and other nations like Malaysia and Turkey besides certain Western nations whom it is trying to convince. The FATF’s ‘grey list’ comprises nations like Pakistan who are seen to have failed to fulfil their obligations to combat terror-financing.
In what was seen as a desperate attempt by Islamabad to convince the world about its intentions on tackling terror, a Pakistani anti-terrorism court had last week convicted Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed on terrorism-related charges.