Key FATF meetings to assess Pak action on terror financing

NEW DELHI: The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will begin a series of meetings on Thursday that will review Pakistan’s actions to counter terror financing amid signs that Islamabad is yet to completely implement the watchdog’s action plan.

There will be eight meetings of the FATF’S working groups between February 11 and 19 before the plenary meeting from February 22-25 that will take a final call on Pakistan’s case. The meetings are being held virtually due to the pandemic.

Pakistan has taken some steps in recent months, such as the prosecution of Lashkar-e-taiba founder Hafiz Saeed and his aides in terror financing cases, though people familiar with developments said these actions didn’t completely fulfil the 27 points in the FATF’S action plan.

“Some of these actions are the type of things Pakistan does whenever it faces pressure from the West to crack down on terror. They aren’t irreversible steps to completely stop activities of terror groups,” said one of the people cited above.

After its last plenary in October, the FATF had given time to Pakistan till February this year to address what it described as “very serious deficiencies” in efforts to counter terror financing. The watchdog also retained Pakistan in the “grey list”, in which it was placed in June 2018.

Ahead of the FATF meetings, Pakistan’s civilian and military leadership has launched a campaign to blame India for fomenting unrest and allegedly backing terror groups in Afghanistan.