June 28, 2021 BaaghiTV: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said that he has presented his position on FATF to the nation while he has also conveyed the concerns of foreign ministers of different countries.
He said that India is using FATF for political purposes, FATF is a technical forum and it should not be used for political purposes. The Foreign Minister further said that we will continue to move forward to curb money laundering and terrorist financing. The program given by the FATF was difficult to implement but Pakistan still did it.
Earlier, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had said that there was no justification for keeping Pakistan on the gray list after the implementation of 26 out of 27 points of the FATF. He said the forum is technical not political. This issue also needs to be considered. Some powers want the threat of FATF to hang over Pakistan. It may be recalled that at the Plenary Meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Friday, Pakistan was placed on a further gray list and it was said that it would be part of further monitoring.
Addressing a virtual press conference, FATF President Marcus Palia said, “Pakistan has complied with 26 of the 27 recommendations, but Pakistan still needs to work on the punishment and prosecution of terrorists.”
While the FATF praised Pakistan for improving the legal system in the country, it cited a report by the Asia-Pacific Group as saying that “in 2019, the agency had identified very serious issues. But despite this, Pakistan has not been able to meet the international FATF standards. That is why the FATF has decided to keep Pakistan on the gray list now and it needs to take further steps to get out of it.
The FATF’s plenary session began on June 20 and ended on Friday. While the decision on Pakistan was being debated in Pakistan, India was also closely monitoring the decision. In this decision, Pakistan has fulfilled two of the three recommendations that were asked to be fulfilled. While Pakistan is working on a remaining recommendation.
In 2018, the Financial Action Task Force or FATF added Pakistan to the gray list. The list includes countries that have failed to take appropriate action to curb money laundering and terrorist financing.
At its meeting in October 2020, the FATF described the implementation of the six recommendations as unsatisfactory and identified four areas that needed further work and provided Pakistan with additional time until February 2021. After which in the meeting of February 2021, the organization had asked to work on three recommendations.
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