>Watchdog’s next plenary meeting in June 2020
>Agrees Pakistan has made some progress
NP newsroom
PARIS: The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) — based here ‑‑ announced on Friday that it was keeping Pakistan in the ‘grey list’ till June 2020 to comply completely with FATF goals.
The terror-financing and money-laundering watchdog hoped Pakistan would achieve all the targets by the next plenary meeting in June 2020.
The FATF agreed Pakistan had made progress on the action plan and had complied with nine additional goals, so it acknowledged Islamabad’s resolve in this regard.
Most FATF member states voted to keep Pakistan on the grey list and monitor progress on the new targets, while Pakistan has promised to achieve the remaining targets.
To escape making theblacklist, Pakistan had obtained the approval of three major influential FATF member countries — Malaysia, Turkey, and China — that voted in favour of keeping Pakistan off the blacklist.
The arrest and sentencing of outlawed group Jamaat-ud-Dawa’s (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed ‑‑ to five years and six months in two cases ‑‑ has helped Pakistan escape the blacklist.
The FATF thought Pakistan has bolstered its monetary system, made efforts to curb money-laundering and terrorism financing, and worked on the implementation of laws made back in 2010 and 2011, in the four months since FATF’s last meeting.
Pakistan was placed on the grey list in June 2018 and was given a plan of action to complete by October 2019 or face being placed on the watchdog’s blacklist along with Iran and North Korea.
