Pak delegation arrives in Beijing for FATF Working Group meeting today

THE TEAM WILL OUTLINE STEPS TAKEN BY PAK SO FAR IN ORDER TO IMPLEMENT THE ACTION PLAN DURING A MEETING OF THE JOINT GROUP STARTING JANUARY 21

ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani delegation that includes a senior minister arrived in Beijing to participate in a crucial three-day meeting of the joint group of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) slated to begin on Tuesday to assess the country’s actions to counter terror financing.

Pakistan was placed on the multilateral watchdog’s ‘grey list’ in 2018 for failing to counter fund-raising by terror groups such as the Taliban, al-qaeda, Lashkar-e-taiba and Jaish-e-mohammed. A plenary meeting of the FATF to be held in Paris in February to decide whether harsher measures are to be imposed against Pakistan if it fails to implement an action plan.

Besides Pakistan’s minister for economic affairs Hamad Azhar, the team includes representatives of the foreign and interior ministries, National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta), State Bank of Pakistan, customs and the Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU).

The team will outline steps taken by Pakistan so far in order to implement the action plan during a meeting of the joint group beginning on January 21, Pakistan’s The News daily reported on Monday.

There is a possibility voting might be done to consider Pakistan’s exit from the grey list, the daily quoted its sources as saying. Pakistani officials, however, were unable to confirm this.

If Pakistan isn’t removed from the grey list, it may get a “largely compliant” rating from FATF on implementing the 27-point action plan and this can help the country get more time for full compliance, the report said.

The daily also quoted its sources as saying that India is trying to move Pakistan to the “black list” but support from China, Turkey and Malaysia will try to counter the effort.

Pakistan sent a 650-page report to FATF on January 8 in response to 150 questions raised by the watchdog. The Pakistani team