Diplomatic push is on to get Pakistan off FATF grey list
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is engaging an aggressive diplomatic effort over the next four weeks to secure enough support and votes to exit the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global watchdog fighting terrorism financing and money laundering.
Pakistan requires about 15-16 votes to move out of the grey list and a minimum of three votes to avoid falling into the blacklist.
A senior government official told the Dawn newspaper that the FATF Plenary and Working Group meetings in Orlando, Florida, scheduled for June 16-21, would be crucial for Pakistan to leave the grey list or fall into the black list, which will have serious economic repercussions for the country. The Orlando plenary will set the stage for Pakistan even though a formal announcement would come out at the FATF plenary due in Paris on October 18-23.
Pakistan is now fully compliant with the related UN resolutions, claimed the official who was part of the Pakistani delegation to the face-to-face meeting of the Asia-pacific Group, a regional affiliate of the FATF, in Guangzhou, China last week.
Over the past two months, Pakistan has taken steps in terms of regulatory and monitoring mechanism to meet the FATF requirements and its legal system is generally up to the mark, except for some amendments to the Anti-money Laundering Act 2010 pending before the parliament’s standing committee on finance and revenue, the official said.
Prime Minister Imran Khan was expected be given a briefing on the Guangzhou meeting and on the way forward on Monday. Foreign minister Mehmood Qureshi is expected to now coordinate with stakeholders on a strategy to reach out to the world capitals in difficult diplomatic environment where the Us-india grouping has greater influence and non-aligned members of the FATF prefer to abstain than side with Pakistan.
The FATF currently comprises 36 members with voting powers and two regional organisations, representing most of the major global financial centres.