Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Shaukat Tarin has stated that Pakistan will be removed from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list this year because it has already met the majority of the task force’s targets.
“We have completed 26 of the 27 conditions of the action plan,” the finance minister told the Khaleej Times, calling the Paris-based global watchdog’s decision to keep Pakistan on its grey list “politically motivated.”
It is worth noting that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) decided on Friday to keep Pakistan on the grey list for another four months, until June 2022.
According to an official statement from the financial watchdog’s report, “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.
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