World reeling from Covid, Pakistan quietly removes thousands of names from terrorist list

Pakistan has quietly removed around 1,800 terrorists from its watch list, including that of 2008 Mumbai attack mastermind and LeT operations commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, ahe of a new round of assessments by global anti-money-laundering watchdog FATF, according to a US-based start-up that automates watchlist compliance.

so-called proscribed persons list, which is maintained by Pakistan’s National Counter Terrorism Authority or NACTA, is intended in part to help financial institutions avoid doing business with or processing transactions of suspected terrorists. list in 2018 contained about 7,600 names. It has been reduced to under 3,800 in past 18 months, according to Castellum.AI, a New York-based regulatory techlogy company.

About 1,800 of names have been removed since beginning of March, according to data collected by Castellum. Pakistan is working to implement an action plan that has been mutually agreed to with Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF), part of which involves “demonstrating effective implementation of targeted financial sanctions." It is possible that se removals are part of Pakistan’s action plan to implement FATF recommendations, it said.

While Pakistan received a rating of “low” effectiveness from FATF regarding terrorist financing preventive measures and financial sanctions, FATF did te in February that Pakistan has largely dressed 14 of 27 action items, with varying levels of progress me on rest of action, it said. FATF will again evaluate Pakistan’s progress in June 2020.

Currently placed on FATF’s ‘grey list’, Pakistan has been scrambling in recent months to avoid being ded to a list of countries deemed n-compliant with anti-money laundering and terrorist financing regulations, a measure that officials here fear could hurt its ecomy, which is alrey under severe strain.

Several of names removed from Pakistan’s list appear to be aliases for designated terrorists listed on US or United Nations sanctions lists, according to Castellum.AI. lack of certain identifiers—such as dates of birth or, in some cases, a national ID number—on NACTA’s list makes it difficult to kw for sure, Wall Street Journal quoted sanctions experts as saying. In case of Zaka Ur Rehman, difference between Zaka and Zaki fits within parameters of an accurate phonetic translation, company said.

Castellum.AI said it also searched for Lashkar-e-Taiba leer’s full name, Zaki Ur Rehman Lakhvi, on Pakistan Proscribed Persons list, and he was t on list. This means that if removed name is a false positive, that Pakistan has t ded Lashkar E Taiba leer to its terrorism watchlist.

According to Wall Street Journal, public explanation was given for removals as y were me, but a Pakistani official said in an email interview that y are part of country’s ongoing efforts to comply with a commitment to strengn its counterterrorism safeguards.

size and speed of removals is unusual, according to Peter Piatetsky, a former senior policy viser for US Treasury and co-founder of Castellum.AI. “Removing close to 4,000 names without a public explanation is unheard of and it raises significant questions about listing process,” he said.

Global standards call for countries to communicate de-listings to financial sector immediately upon taking such action. Pakistan, which designates entities and persons with suspected links to terrorism under its Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997, hasn’t historically done so, newspaper said.