The FATS’s Asia Pacific Group puts Pakistan in ‘Enhanced Black List’
The Asia Pacific Group (APG) of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has blacklisted the terror-promoting Pakistan on Friday, August 23, 2019, as the latter failed to take effective measures to curb terror financing in the country.
The FATF is an inter-governmental body established in 1989 by the Ministers of its Member jurisdictions. The objectives of the FATF are to set standards and promote effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system.
The decision was made during the APG’s 2-day meet in Canberra, Australia, where Pakistan failed to convince the 41 members panel about its efforts of curbing terror financing. Of the 40 parameters which Pakistan was required to comply with, it had only scored on 8 parameters. The APG of FATF has put Pakistan in the ‘Enhanced Expedited Follow Up List’.
The Indian team was represented by Officials from the Ministries of Home, External Affairs and Finance. The Pakistan’s delegation was headed by the Governor of State Bank of Pakistan – Reza Baqir. The move to review the actions taken by Pakistan against curbing terror financing was pushed by the United States (U.S.), United Kingdom (U.K.), Germany and France.
Going forward, Pakistan now has to focus on avoiding the blacklisting by global body of FATF, whose review is due in October 2019. It was put in the ‘Grey List’ in June 2018 and was told to act upon FATF’s 27-point action plan. A review was conducted in February 2019 where it failed to convince the members to get removed from ‘Grey List’.
Pakistan is being closely monitored by FATF for its proximity to terror groups such as Lashkar -E- Taiba (LeT) and Jaish -E- Mohammad (JeM). Pakistan based JeM was also involved in the Pulwama terror attack in February 2019, where more than 40 Indian Central Reserve Police Forces (CRPF) personnel were killed.
In order to show that it is fighting against terrorism, it did make few arrests including the Chief of JeM – Masood Azhar, the Chief of LeT – Hafiz Saeed and other members of terror groups, viz. Jamat-ud-Dawah (JuD) and Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF). However, as per FATF, these arrests were apprehended under its Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) Act and very few under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.
Talking about Pakistan’s economy, it will only get worse, even if the FATF continues to keep Pakistan in the ‘Grey List’. This would mean downgrading by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the European Union (E.U.). The downgrading will make it impossible for Pakistan to procure fresh funds to revive its economy.
