FATF keeps Pakistan on grey list until June despite ‘significant progress’

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Thursday decided to keep Pakistan on its ‘g ‘grey list’, with the country’s status set to be reviewed next at an extraordinary plenary session in June 2021.The announcement was made by FATF President Dr Marcus Pleyer at a press briefing from Paris on the outcomes of the FATF’s four-day virtual plenary meeting.“Pakistan remains under increased monitoring,” Pleyer said, adding that while Islamabad had made “significant progress”, there remained some “serious deficiencies” in mechanisms to plug terrorism financing. “Three out of 27 [points] need to be fully addressed,” he said, referring to the action plan agreed to by Pakistan.

While reiterating that Pakistan has made “progress”, the FATF president said: “[We] strongly urge completion of the plan [by Pakistan].”

He said 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. As soon as Pakistan shows it has completed these items, FATF will verify and members of FATF will vote.” Responding to a question by an Indian journalist about prosecution of terrorists in Pakistan, Pleyer clarified that the FATF was not an investigative organisation. “What we assess is the entire system of anti-money laundering [and] the framework. This does not change with incidents per se,” he said. “What is now essential is that Pakistan completes the action plan.”

The FATF president noted that Pakistan was working towards its commitment made at a high level to implement the illicit financing watchdog’s recommendations, saying “that is not the time to put a country on the blacklist”.He added that as soon as Pakistan completed the action, the watchdog “will verify the sustainability of the reforms and discuss in next plenary in June”. Answering another question about alleged funding of terrorism by India, the FATF president declined to comment on specific incidents, reiterating that the watchdog was not an investigative agency.