Pakistan’s efforts to curb money laundering and terror financing have initially been declared satisfactory in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meeting held in Paris, and it is reportedly unlikely that the country would be included in FATF's blacklist.
Pakistan’s implantation of the FATF action plan will be under review for another two days, following which the global watchdog will make a decision about whether to maintain or remove Islamabad from the grey list.
The meeting is being presided over by China, while Saudi Arabia is also in attendance as a member. Currently, Pakistan and Iran’s are on the top agenda of the meeting.
The Pakistani delegation to FATF’s meeting is led by Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Hammad Azhar.
The FATF will be gauging whether the steps taken by Pakistan to curb money laundering and terror financing were convincing and satisfactory. The international body will also review Pakistan’s performance on the action plan given on April 29.
Finance ministry officials have observed that Pakistan would not be included in the blacklist.
Members of the team apprised media that out of the 36 recommendations of FATF, Pakistan had fully implemented nine recommendations, while 27 recommendations had been partially implemented.
The team also stated that terror financing had been halted, while bank accounts of all banned organisations had been frozen and their assets confiscated.
Sources informed media that Pakistan was not concerned about being included in the blacklist as it had fully focused on the targets given by FATF in the past eight months.
Pakistan’s status would be decided on October 16 and 17 after the review is completed.
Last week, the Foreign Office had dismissed the Indian claim that could be blacklisted by FATF ‘at any time’.