FATF decides to keep Pakistan on grey list till Feb

ISLAMABAD: The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has decided to keep Pakistan on its grey list until February 2021 despite complying successfully with 21 out of 27 points of action.
The decision was made by the global watchdog for curbing terror financing and money laundering in its virtual plenary session from October 21 to 23.
It reviewed Pakistan’s progress on the 27-point action plan.
FATF President Marcus Pleyer announced the decision after the three-day session came to an end on Friday. Pakistan has been on the watchdog’s grey list since June 2018.
Federal Minister of Industries and Production, Hammad Azhar in a series of tweets after the decision said that Pakistan has achieved impressive progress on its FATF action plan. He said that 21 out of 27 action items now stand cleared while remaining 6 action items have been rated as partially complete.
He said that within a year, the government progressed from 5/27 to 21/27 completed items. “FATF acknowledged that any blacklisting is off the table now,” added the minister of industries and production.
Hammad said that instead of the current action plan, discussions remained focused on how Pakistan can be facilitated for its upcoming 2nd evaluation (MER), which is due by the mid of the next year. “I congratulate our Federal and Provincial Teams who have worked day and night even during the pandemic to ensure this turn around,” he added.
Earlier to the decision, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi talking to the media here on Friday said that India’s nefarious designs to push Pakistan into the blacklist of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will fail because the world has recognized Pakistan’s measures against terror financing and money laundering.
The foreign minister said that out of 27 actionable points, Pakistan has shown 100 percent progress on 21 and progress has also been made to meet the remaining six points.
Shah Mahmood Qureshi asked the FATF forum to positively respond to the significant progress made by Pakistan to comply with its action plan. – TLTP