Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Shaukat Tarin has said that Pakistan would exit from the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) this year as it has already achieved most of the targets set by the task force.
“We have completed 26 conditions out of 27 of the action plan,” the finance minister told the Khaleej Times and termed the Paris-based global watchdog’s decision to keep Pakistan on its grey list as politically motivated.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), on Friday, had decided to keep Pakistan on the grey list for another four months till June 2022.
An official statement from the financial watchdog’s report read, “FATF encourages Pakistan to continue to make progress to address, as soon as possible, the one remaining item by continuing to demonstrate that TF investigations and prosecutions target senior leaders and commanders of UN-designated terrorist groups.”
“Since June 2021, Pakistan has taken swift steps towards improving its AML/CFT regime and completed 6 of the 7 action items ahead of any relevant deadlines expiring, including by demonstrating that it is enhancing the impact of sanctions by nominating individuals and entities for UN designation and restraining and confiscating proceeds of crime in line with Pakistan’s risk profile. Pakistan should continue to work to address the one remaining item in its 2021 action plan by demonstrating a positive and sustained trend of pursuing complex ML investigations and prosecutions,” it said further.
