Pakistan has fulfilled 24 points out of the total 27 points on FATF’s action list and aims to fully comply with the remaining
Pakistan’s government sees positive progress in compliance with the 27 point program from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and has ruled out that there is any chance for the country to be moved to the blacklist.
The government is also confident that the three remaining points will be fully complied with soon and the country would exit the FATF grey list by June 2021.
FATF is a Paris-based financial watchdog on terrorist financing and money laundering. The body has urged Pakistan to complete the entire program by June this year.
Federal Minister of Industries and Production Hammad Azhar, unequivocally said that a lot of progress has been made and there was no chance that Pakistan will be moved to the FATF blacklist. The minister was certain that Pakistan will fully comply with all points on the list shortly. He also added that Pakistan continued to report despite having the option of not doing so due to the Covid situation.
“We had the option to not report during the coronavirus pandemic [but] Pakistan fulfilled its objectives during the difficult times of coronavirus,” said Azhar. “At the previous plenary, FATF countries and the FATF secretariat said that blacklisting was not an option because the country has achieved significant progress. A lot of work has been done on the three points in which we are partially complaint. In my eyes, we are close to being largely compliant in these areas.”
FATF’s President Dr. Marcus Pleyer also said that Pakistan has by and large complied with 24 action items on the list of 27 and expressed hope that the partially complied ones will quickly be addressed as well. “To date, Pakistan has made progress across all action plan items and has now largely addressed 24 of the 27 action items. As all action plan deadlines have expired, the FATF strongly urges Pakistan to swiftly complete its full action plan before June 2021,” Pleyer said.