Pakistan claims report on its FATF Grey List 'fabricated', silent on infiltration attempts

Claiming that the recent reports on FATF's Grey list is fake, Pakistan on Friday has said that no "new decision" was taken about it at the virtual plenary of the global terror financing watchdog. The Imran Khan-led country has called the media reports about its continuation on the FATF'' s Grey List as "fabricated news". The statement has been issued by Pakistan Foreign Office.

The agenda of the FATF's virtual plenary meeting, held on June 24, did not include Pakistan, the Foreign Office (FO) said. "In this virtual plenary meeting, no new decision regarding Pakistan was made," it added. Pakistan's foreign office also claimed that Indian media is reporting the news as it helps the political parties. 

On Wednesday, it was reported that in yet another blow to Pakistan, the global terror financing watchdog, FATF, has decided to keep the Imran Khan-led country in the "Grey List". The FATF officials were quoted saying that the decision was taken in the third and final plenary of the Task Force as the body observed that Pakistan has failed to check the flow of money to terror groups like the LeT and the JeM - both of which are responsible for terror attacks in India. Notably, the plenary was held under the Chinese Presidency of Xiangmin Liu, as per reports. 

"The FATF plenary decided continuation of Pakistan in 'Grey List' till its next meeting to be held in October," an official privy to the development told PTI. The decision has been taken as Pakistan has failed to check the flow of money to terror groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), the official was quoted saying.

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India's response

Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said on Thursday that Pakistan's continuation on the Grey List of the FATF vindicated India''s position that the country had not taken any appropriate action against terror networks operating from its soil.

It said in a statement that Pakistan was prepared to present its progress report to the FATF in the plenary meeting scheduled for this month. However, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the FATF decided on April 28 a general pause for four months in the review process for a number of countries, including Pakistan, under the ICRG (International Cooperation Review Group) assessment, the statement said.

Pak 'loses' Masood Azhar

In February this year, JeM chief Masood Azhar and his family were reported missing, ahead of the beginning of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) plenary meet. In the same month, 26/11 mastermind and LeT chief Hafiz Saeed was convicted for five and a half years in two terror financing cases against him. Additionally, he was slapped with a fine of Rs15,000 in each case. 

Pakistan in FATF list 

The FATF placed Pakistan on Grey List in June 2018. In August 2019, the Asia Pacific Joint Group (APJG) placed Pakistan in the enhanced follow up list for failure to meet the standards. The list was based on technical compliance and rated 'satisfactory' on meeting 10 points out of the 40. 

The FATF is an inter-governmental body established in 1989 to combat money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system. The FATF currently has 39 members including two regional organisations -- the European Commission and Gulf Cooperation Council. India is a member of the FATF consultations and its Asia Pacific Group.

READ | Pakistan to remain on FATF's Grey List for leaving terror groups JeM & LeT unchecked