Pak awaits FATF ruling on terror

NEW DELHI: The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will on Thursday take a call on Pakistan’s efforts to counter terror financing and money laundering, with the country widely expected to be retained in the multilateral watchdog’s “grey list”.

The FATF will conclude its three-day virtual plenary meeting on Thursday, following several rounds of meetings of its working groups since February 11. Some of these meetings have focused on the latest report submitted by Pakistan regarding compliance with the FATF’S 27-point action plan that was drawn up after the country was placed on the grey list in June 2018.

At its last plenary in October 2020, the FATF concluded that Pakistan had fully complied with 21 of 27 points in the action plan but warned the country that it could not be given “forever” to address outstanding issues. As all deadlines for the action plan had expired, the FATF had urged Pakistan to deliver on all 27 points by February 2021.

The Australia-based Asia-pacific Group (APG), a key regional affiliate of the FATF, had also concluded before the last plenary meeting that Pakistan was fully compliant with only two of 40 recommendations to counter terror financing and money laundering.