ISLAMABAD: Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will examine Pakistan’s progress on its existing action plan during plenary meeting on October 16 to October 18 in Paris.
Talking to a private television channel, FATF official said that Pakistan’s efforts will be thoroughly analyzed in the meeting before taking any further step.
Only FATF has authority to change the status of Pakistan or to blacklist it, he added.
The official said that Asia Pacific Group (APG) had assessed the effectiveness of Pakistan measures to combat money laundering and terrorist financing and expressed satisfaction over them.
On the other hand, the communiqué of the APG talks has not mentioned to blacklist Pakistan. APG cannot change the status of Pakistan as FATF is only authorized to do so, it stated.
The APG meeting also reviewed important reports on Pakistan, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, China, Philippines and Solomon Islands.
Earlier in June, 2018, FATF had placed Pakistan ‘grey list’ for not acting against terror financing on its soil.
On June 20, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan had issued the anti-money laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Regulations 2018, in compliance with FATF recommendations.
The FATF is an inter-governmental body established in 1989 to combat money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system.
Meanwhile, Finance Ministry has rejected media reports being circulated about Pakistan being blacklisted by FATF’s Asia Pacific Group as incorrect and baseless.
In its reaction to the news published in the Indian media about Pakistan being black listed by the Asia Pacific Group, the Finance Ministry in a statement clarified that the group in its 22nd annual meeting held in Canberra, Australia adopted Pakistan’s third Mutual Evaluation Report and has put Pakistan in its enhanced follow-up as per the APG’s Third Round Mutual Evaluation Procedures.
The statement said Pakistan would be required to
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