Published 16:04 IST, September 12th 2019
Four times Pakistan failed to convince FATF on terror funding
The recent Asia-Pacific Joint Group meeting in Bangkok saw Muhammad Hammad Azhar, answering questions in relation to the Pakistan's efforts to combat terrorism.
- World News
- 3 min read
The recent Asia-Pacific Joint Group meeting in Bangkok saw a fifteen-member delegation headed by Pakistan's minister of economic affairs, Muhammad Hammad Azhar, answering questions in relation to the country's efforts to combat terrorism. In August 2019, Pakistan had submitted an action plan or compliance report explaining the status of its actions taken so far. A month after the submission, Imran Khan's government was asked to answer questions of the committee which comprised of sixteen members.
The fate of Imran Khan-led government/country is now sealed in the report by the AP-Joint Group. The Group would now analyse and submit its report to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) – an agency to combat money laundering and terror financing - which would then decide on the matter in its next meeting scheduled for 13 to 18 October in Paris.
FATF's repeated fire for Pakistan
Pakistan has continuously found itself under FATF fire for failing to take action against terror funding hence put on grey list. Here is four times when FATF minced no words in expressing its concerns over Pakistan's seriousness to fight terrorism.
2008
“Financial institutions should be aware that the remaining deficiencies in Pakistan’s AML/CFT system constitute a ML/FT vulnerability in the international financial system.”
2010
“FATF remains concerned regarding the ML/FT risks posed by Pakistan and reaffirms its public statement of 28 February 2008 regarding these risks. In particular, the FATF expresses concern that Pakistan’s Anti-Money Laundering Ordinance (AMLO) will expire on 26 March 2010.”
2011
“Pakistan failed to provide a satisfactory response to the FATF’s particular concern about the lack of implementation regarding Pakistan’s terrorist financing offence expressed in June 2011 and its calls upon Pakistan to demonstrate specific action in this regard.”
2019
“The FATF expresses concern that not only did Pakistan fail to complete its action plan items with January deadlines, it also failed to complete its action plan items due May 2019. The FATF strongly urges Pakistan to swiftly complete its action plan by October 2019 when the last set of action plan items are set to expire. Otherwise, the FATF will decide the next step at that time for insufficient progress.”
Updated 17:37 IST, September 12th 2019