Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari made the announcement prior to an FATF press conference, congratulating the country on the achievement, Dawn reported.
Pakistan was included among jurisdictions under the increased monitoring list in June 2018 for deficiencies in its legal, financial, regulatory, investigation, prosecution, judicial and non-government sectors in fighting money laundering and combat terror financing, which are considered serious threats to global financial system.
Islamabad made high-level political commitments to address these deficiencies under a 27-point action plan. But later the number of action points was enhanced to 34.
The country had since been vigorously working with FATF and its affiliates to strengthen its legal and financial systems against money laundering and terror financing to meet international standards in line with the 40 recommendations of the FATF, Dawn reported.
A 15-member joint delegation of the FATF and its Sydney-based regional affiliate Asia Pacific Group paid an onsite visit to Pakistan from August 29 to September 2 to verify the country's compliance with the 34-point action plan committed with the FATF.
The authorities which kept the countrywide visit of the delegation low profile later termed it as "a smooth and successful visit". The delegation had detailed discussions with the relevant agencies pursuant to the authorisation of onsite visit by the FATF Plenary in June 2022.
Pakistan believed that as a result of strenuous and consistent efforts over the past four years, it has not only achieved a high degree of technical compliance with FATF standards, but also ensured high level of effectiveness through implementation of two comprehensive FATF action plans.
In June this year, FATF had found Pakistan "compliant or largely compliant" on all the 34 points and had decided to field an onsite mission to verify it on ground before formally announcing the country's exit from the grey list that finally took place in August and September.
In terms of technical compliance with FATF standards, Pakistan was rated by APG as "compliant or largely compliant" in 38 out of 40 FATF recommendations in August this year, which placed the country among the top compliant countries in the world.
Last month, the Foreign Office in Pakistan had said that a FATF technical team had conducted a "successful" visit and Islamabad was expecting a "logical conclusion" of the evaluation process in October, Dawn reported.
The Sydney-based regional affiliate of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) released an update, as of September 2, on the rating of its regional members suggesting that Pakistan had a 'moderate level of effectiveness' on only one out of 11 outcomes, Dawn news reported on Tuesday.
Under this 'immediate outcome', Pakistan extends international cooperation on appropriate information, financial intelligence, and evidence, and facilitates action against criminals and their assets.
A 15-member joint delegation of the FATF and APG paid an on-site visit to Pakistan from August 29 to September 2 to verify the country's compliance with a 34-point action plan committed at the highest level in June 2018.
The task force found Pakistan compliant or largely compliant on all the 34 points in February this year and had decided to field an onsite mission to verify it on the ground before formally announcing the country's exit from the grey list.
Under the FATF-APG assessment mechanism, effective ratings on "Immediate Outcomes" reflect the extent to which a country's measures are effective, Dawn reported.
The assessment is conducted on the basis of 11 immediate outcomes, which represent key goals that an effective AML/CFT system should achieve.
However, this has no direct bearing on an expected exit of Pakistan from FATF's grey list during its October 18-22 plenary in Paris.
The findings of the 15-member FATF team would be discussed and reviewed in the next meeting of FATF, scheduled in Paris in October, The Express Tribune reported.
The positive outcome of the onsite team's findings would allow Pakistan to finally come clean over deficiencies in the system to curb money laundering and terror financing.
Official sources confirmed that the FATF team, which was given a state guest level protocol, stayed in the country from August 29 to September 2, The Express Tribune reported.
The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) approved a special grant of Rs7 million for FATF Secretariat to provide the 15-member FATF team accommodation, food and travel.
The visit was kept under wraps but sources said the FATF delegation held meetings with the relevant authorities and verified the steps Pakistan had taken to fulfil the condition of international financial watchdog on money laundering and terror financing.
The FATF in June had hinted at Pakistan's removal from the grey list after it concluded that Pakistan complied with the 34-point plan of action and agreed to send its team for the verification of those steps.
Pakistan was placed on the grey list by FATF in June 2018 for deficiencies in its system to curb money laundering and terror financing.
It was first given a 27-point action plan and later another seven-point plan to comply with the FATF's standards, The Express Tribune reported.
Mir, involved in the November 2008 siege -- when a team of 10 men carried out coordinated attacks on multiple targets in Mumbai, has been sought by both the US and India for over a decade. As many as 170 people of various nationalities -- including six Americans were killed in the terror attack.
The case appears to have been brought to a head by Pakistan's desire to extricate itself from the Financial Action Task Force's (FATF) international terror-financing watchlist, Nikkei Asia reported.
Hammad Azhar, Pakistan's former finance minister in the recently ousted government of Prime Minister Imran Khan, and the man in charge of negotiations with the multilateral watchdog for the past three years, told the media outlet that Pakistan took measures against Mir and other designated terrorists that were "satisfactory" to the FATF.
The task force has been keeping Pakistan on its Grey List, used to monitor and isolate non-compliant countries.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which concluded its week-long meeting in Florida in the US, also asked Pakistan to take credible, verifiable, irreversible and sustainable measures to address global concerns related to terrorism and terrorist financing emanating from the territory under its control.
"The FATF has decided to continue to keep Pakistan on its compliance document (i.e. Grey List) for its International Co-operation Review Group (ICRG) for its failure to complete the action plan items due in January and May 2019," an FATF spokesperson said in a statement.
The FATF continuing Pakistan in the 'Grey' list means its downgrading by IMF, World Bank, ADB, EU and also a reduction in risk rating by Moody's, S&P and Fitch.
This will add to the financial problems of Pakistan, which is seeking aid from all possible international avenues.
The FATF said, "We expect Pakistan to take all necessary steps to effectively implement the FATF Action Plan fully within the remaining time frame i.e. by September 2019, in accordance with its political commitment to the FATF and take credible, verifiable, irreversible and sustainable measures to address global concerns related to terrorism and terrorist financing emanating from any territory under its control".
During the FATF meeting, the US, the UK and France were some prominent countries to have voiced concern over Pakistan's failure to do enough to contain terror funding in its soil and not registering cases against terror masterminds Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar under anti-terror laws, sources said Saturday.
Pakistan continues to state that it has seized more than 700 properties of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), Jamat-ud-Dawah (JuD) and Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF), similar to what it did as a result of its previous grey listing in 2012.
However, FATF members are concerned that there are no cases registered against the terror leadership, namely Saeed and Masood and other UN-designated terrorists.
India's stand at the FATF Plenary and other related discussions have always been consistent regarding Pakistan. India has steadfastly supported the move of four nominating countries -- the US, the UK, Germany and France -- in February 2018.
These countries have voiced their concern that Pakistan is not doing enough to contain terror funding on its soil.
One of the key points made by these countries is the absence of a proper understanding in Pakistan of trans-national risk i.e., risk posed to neighbouring and other nations by designated terrorist organisations based in Pakistan.
In June 2018, Pakistan was placed in the 'grey' list and given a 27-point action plan by FATF. This plan was reviewed at the last plenary in October 2018 and for the second time in February, when the country was again put into the 'gray' list after India submitted new information about Pakistan-based terrorist groups.
In a bid to bluff the financial watchdog, Pakistani authorities have shown arrests of LeT, JeM, JuD and FiF cadres. But all were apprehended under its Maintenance of Public Order Act and not under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.
Under the MPO Act, authorities cannot hold a detainee beyond 60 days. Pakistan has detained JeM founder Azhar and LeT founder Saeed mostly under the laws that provide for detention for apprehension of breach of peace, they have never been prosecuted under anti-terror laws.
The FATF implements UN designations, which do not warrant arrest. They ask only for freeze of funds, denial of access to weapons and travel embargo. The financial watchdog also wants nations to impose penalties that are proportionate and dissuasive.
The FATF currently has 35 members and two regional organisations - European Commission and Gulf Cooperation Council.
In the last meeting of the FATF in Paris, it said Pakistan should continue to work on implementing its action plan to address its strategic deficiencies, including by adequately demonstrating its proper understanding of the terror financing risks posed by the terrorist groups and conducting supervision on a risk-sensitive basis, demonstrating that remedial actions and sanctions are applied in cases of Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Financing of Terrorism violations and that these actions have an effect on AML/CFT compliance by financial institutions.
The FATF said Pakistan, since June last year, made "a high-level political commitment to work with the FATF and APG (Asia-Pacific Group on Money Laundering) to strengthen its AML/CFT (Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) regime and to address its strategic counter-terrorist financing-related deficiencies.
It said: "Pakistan has taken steps towards improving its AML/CFT regime, including the recent development of its TF (Terrorist Financing) risk assessment addendum; however, it does not demonstrate a proper understanding of Pakistan's transnational TF risk."
A statement issued after three-day deliberations of the international watchdog, founded by G-7 (Group of seven industrialized nations) in 1989, Asaid, read: "The FATF expresses concern that not only did Pakistan fail to complete its action plan items with January deadlines, it also failed to complete its action plan items due May 2019."
"The FATF strongly urges Pakistan to swiftly complete its action plan by October 2019 when the last set of action plan items are set to expire. Otherwise, the FATF will decide the next step at that time for insufficient progress."
The FATF has already placed Pakistan in the 'Grey' list (watch list) and runs the risk of being blacklisted, after which the country can be denied aid by international bodies.
In the wake of the FATF warning, India on Saturday said Pakistan should take "credible" and "irreversible" steps to address global concerns related to terrorism.
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said Pakistan should take all necessary steps to effectively implement the FATF action plan to counter terror financing operations.
"We expect Pakistan to take all necessary steps to effectively implement the FATF Action Plan fully within the remaining time frame i.e. by September 2019 in accordance with its political commitment to the FATF," Kumar said.
"Pakistan should take credible, verifiable, irreversible and sustainable measures to address global concerns related to terrorism and terrorist financing emanating from any territory under its control," he added.
Outlining a series of steps that Pakistan needs to take, the FATF said it should continue to work on implementing its action plan to address its "strategic deficiencies", including by "adequately demonstrating its proper understanding of the TF risks posed by the terrorist groups , and conducting supervision on a risk-sensitive basis".
It also asked Pakistan to demonstrate that "remedial actions and sanctions are applied in cases of AML/CFT violations, and that these actions have an effect on AML/CFT compliance by financial institutions.a
Pakistan also needs to demonstrate that competent authorities are cooperating and taking action to identify and take enforcement action against illegal money or value transfer services (MVTS).
The FATF also asked Pakistan to demonstrate that "law enforcement agencies (LEAs) are identifying and investigating the widest range of TF activity and that TF investigations and prosecutions target designated persons and entities, and persons and entities acting on behalf or at the direction of the designated persons or entities."
Pakistan must demonstrate that TF prosecutions result in "effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions and enhancing the capacity and support for prosecutors and the judiciary," the FATF said.
It said Pakistan should also show ace effective implementation of targeted financial sanctions (supported by a comprehensive legal obligation) against all 1267 and 1373 designated terrorists and those acting for or on their behalf, including preventing the raising and moving of funds, identifying and freezing assets (movable and immovable), and prohibiting access to funds and financial services."
The 1267 refers to the UN Sanctions Committee, which has listed Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar and ALashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Saeed as global terrorists.
The FATF said Pakistan also must demonstrate that "facilities and services owned or controlled by designated person are deprived of their resources and the usage of the resources."
"The flow of resources meant to produce terror are required to be stopped by states for which collective inter-state efforts are required at regional and sub-regional levels," Yedla Umasankar, the legal adviser at India's UN Mission, said on Wednesday.
He said the FATF "has a significant role in setting global standards for preventing and combating terrorist financing and UN needs to increase cooperation with such bodies".
The FATF, which has 39 members including India, sets guidelines for fighting terrorism financing and monitors their compliance.
"We strongly condemn direct or indirect financial assistance given to terrorist groups or individual members thereof by States or its machineries," Umasankar said at a meeting of the General Assembly's legal affairs committee on "Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism".
The FATF is to meet next week in Paris and Pakistan is on the agenda.
Pakistan is on its "gray list" of countries with "strategic deficiencies" and was given a set of guidelines to remedy them.
"The FATF expresses concern that not only did Pakistan fail to complete its action plan items with January deadlines, it also failed to complete its action plan items due May 2019," the organisation has said.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi have accused India of trying to push it into the "black list", which would seriously hamper its ability to get foreign financing.
Umasankar said that the failure at the UN to get an agreement on the Comprehensive Convention against International Terrorism (CCIT) "remains one of the great gaps in the international legislative framework that would strengthen efforts to destroy safe haven for terrorists, their financial flows and their support networks".
Disagreement on defining terrorists and terrorism has blocked progress on the convention proposed by India in 1996.
"India is of the firm belief that a Comprehensive Convention against International Terrorism (CCIT) will provide a strong legal basis for the fight against terrorism and will be in the interest of all member states," Umasankar said.
"The Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy (GCTS) being discussed by the UN General Assembly over the last decade has resulted in little impact on the ground," he said.
He also criticised the working of the Sanctions Committees of the Security Council, which he said, "have become selective tools due to opaque working methods and politicised decision making".
The sanctions committee that handles al-Qaeda, Islamic State and similar terrorist groups took a decade to declare Jaish-e-Mohamed chief Masood Azhar a global terrorist because of manoeuvres by China during the panel's secret meetings.
The European Foundation for South Asian Studies (EFSAS) has said that "there is little doubt that Pakistan is not really serious about its adherence to the FATF's requirements. The country has been allowed to get away so often with blatantly untruthful claims to the international community about having stopped sponsoring terrorism that it has honed this skill into an art. It is, accordingly, attempting to project superfluous and temporary actions as demonstrations of sincere and substantial efforts to the FATF".
"While Pakistan may well succeed in averting the FATF blacklist by the skin of its teeth this time around, it will almost certainly remain on the grey list as it has little chance of securing the 15 votes required to get itself out of the list. That will bring its own set of serious challenges for the country's economy.
"Eventually though, if Pakistan continues on its merry path of supporting terrorism and funding it through its fake currency factories and networks, the noose is bound to tighten," the EFSAS said.
The think-tank added that Pakistani officials apprised the APG of the "measures they claimed to have taken to prevent suspicious transactions and to restrict illegal activities and freeze the assets of proscribed organizations and groups. That they had little success in convincing the APG was evident from the scathing criticism that Pakistan came in for in the Mutual Evaluation Report (MER) that the APG released on October 2".
The 228 page MER was based on information provided by Pakistan, as well as the field visit by an APG assessment team in October last year.
The six-member team comprised experts from the US, the Maldives, China, Turkey, Indonesia and the UK. At the time of the team's visit, there were 66 organizations and over 7,600 individuals in Pakistan that were proscribed under the UN Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 1373", the think-tank noted.
The MER will play a key part at the Paris meeting in determining whether Pakistan would be retained on the grey list that it currently is on, be removed from the list, or indeed downgraded to the black list along with North Korea and Iran.
According to FATF guidelines, the parameters for the assessment are aEffectiveness and Technical Compliance Rankings', comprising 10 and 40 parameters respectively.
The scale on which a country's technical compliance levels are rated ranges from 'Compliant', 'Partially Compliant', 'Largely Compliant' and 'Non-Compliant'.
In the MER, Pakistan was rated 'Non-Compliant' on 5 of the 40 FATF recommendations, 'Partially Compliant' on 25 others and 'Largely Compliant' on 9.
The only recommendation on which it was fully complaint related to financial institution secrecy laws.
Similarly, on the 10 parameters for effectiveness, Pakistan was judged 'low' in 9 and 'moderate' in 1, it said.
According to sources, the FATF meeting would discuss a report on the steps taken by Pakistan till April 2019 and a decision would be made on whether to exclude Islamabad from the intergovernmental organisation's grey list, reports Geo News.
Measures taken by Pakistan to prevent terrorist financing will also be reviewed in the FATF meeting. As per Prime Minister's Adviser on Finance and Revenue, Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, Islamabad had completed 20 of the steps.
Sources, however, said Pakistan had already implemented most of the FATF measures, such as banning terrorist organisations.
In addition, it had also taken steps to seize the properties of terrorists and stopped them from doing business.
Last week, the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) published its long-awaited 228-page report, titled "Mutual Evaluation Report 2019", which said that Pakistan has largely but partially complied with 36 of the 40 parameters set by the FATF at the time of the country's inclusion in the grey list.
Based on the technical compliance ratings, the APG report showed that Pakistan had fully complied with only one parameter, largely complied with nine, and partially complied with 26 of the 40 parameters.
The FATF review had placed Pakistan into the grey list in June 2018 and had given 27 action plans till September 2019 to comply for coming out from the grey list.
This upcoming review of the FATF meeting in Paris will now decide the fate of the country with three possibilities -- excluding it from grey and put into green list, continuing it into grey list with extended period of 9 to 12 months and thirdly in worst case scenario putting the country into blacklist, having dire consequences for the country's economy.
An FATF meeting in Paris on Tuesday reviewed the measures that Islamabad has already taken to control money laundering and terror financing. However, the meeting observed that Islamabad will have to take further steps in these four months, Dawn news reported.
The FATF has linked the blacklisting of Pakistan with unsatisfactory steps to curb money laundering and terror financing. The FATF will take a final decision on the matter in February 2020.
A formal announcement about these developments will be made on October 18.
Pakistan Finance Ministry spokesperson Omar Hameed Khan was approached to verify the news but he said: "It is not true and nothing before October 18."
A Pakistani delegation led by Minister for Economic Affairs Hammad Azhar told the meeting that Islamabad has made positive progress in 20 out of 27 points. The FATF expressed satisfaction on the measures taken by Pakistan and its progress in various areas.
While China, Turkey and Malaysia appreciated the steps taken by Pakistan, India has recommended its blacklisting on the plea that Islamabad has allowed Hafiz Saeed to withdraw funds from his frozen accounts.
Concerns were also raised on the tax amnesty scheme offered in Pakistan.
On the outright support extended by Turkey, China and Malaysia, the FATF decided not to include Pakistan on the blacklist and give it more time to implement the remaining measures.
According to the FATF charter comprising 36 countries, the support of at least three countries is required to not blacklist any country.
In August 2019, the Asia-Pacific Group, a regional affiliate of the FATF, also expressed concern over Pakistan's performance due to technical flaws. Islamabad is obligated to report its performance to the group every three months.
The Paris-based FATF gave the warning to Pakistan at its five-day plenary which concluded here on Friday while deciding to again put the country on the 'Grey List'
By making this decision on Pakistan public, the FATF has given notice to the global financial institutions that they need to prepare to red flag the jurisdiction and ready their systems in February 2020 if the country falters in meeting the targets.
"It was again decided by consensus that FATF would retain Pakistan on the Grey List and warn Pakistan that if it did not complete its full Action Plan and show significant and sustainable progress action will be taken," said an official privy to the development said.
Since Pakistan continues to be in the FATF 'Grey List' , it would be very difficult for the country to get financial aid from the IMF, the World Bank, ADB and the European Union. There is also the risk of reduction in rating by Moody's, S&P and Fitch, making Pakistan's financial condition more precarious.
According to a FATF statement, the FATF plenary noted that Pakistan addressed only five out of the 27 tasks given to it in controlling funding to terror groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Hizbul Mujahideen, responsible for a series of attacks in India.
The FATF said it strongly urges Pakistan to swiftly complete its full action plan by February 2020.
"Otherwise, should significant and sustainable progress not be made across the full range of its action plan by the next plenary, the FATF will take action, which could include the FATF calling on its members and urging all jurisdictions to advise their Financial Institutions to give special attention to business relations and transactions with Pakistan," the global body said in the statement.
Such action could include calling upon global financial institutions to give special attention to business relations and transactions with Pakistan. This language is the same as used for Iran, which is already in the blacklist category.
The FATF blacklist is a shorthand descriptor for the 'Enhanced Expedited Follow Up (EEFU) list, since it is the last rung of a 4 step rating. Similarly, the FATF 'Grey List' refers to gradings of Non-Cooperative Countries or Territories (NCCT).
Interestingly, FATF President Xiangmin Liu, who is from China -- Pakistan's "all weather friend"-- also referred to Islamabad's "deficiencies in its anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism system".
The global watchdog said all deadlines for Pakistan in the action plan have now expired.
"The FATF again expresses serious concerns with the overall lack of progress by Pakistan to address its terror financing risks, including remaining deficiencies in demonstrating a sufficient understanding of Pakistan's transnational terror financing risks, and more broadly, Pakistan's failure to complete its action plan in line with the agreed timelines and in light of the terror financing risks emanating from the jurisdiction.
"To date, Pakistan has only largely addressed five of 27 action items, with varying levels of progress made on the rest of the action plan," the FATF statement said.
Pakistan was placed on the Grey List by the FATF in June last year and was given a plan of action to complete it by October 2019, or face the risk of being placed on the blacklist with Iran and North Korea.
In light of the additional fact of Pakistan's poor performance on its mutual evaluation, chances of Pakistan exiting the Grey List in the next few years are now reduced to nil and the possibility of a formal blacklisting in February 2020 is highly probable, another official said.
The FATF said Pakistan must demonstrate effective implementation of targeted financial sanctions against all UN 1267 and 1373 designated terrorists like LeT founder Hafiz Saeed, JeM founder Maulana Masood Azhar, and and those acting for or on their behalf.
Islamabad also must demonstrate that its authorities are identifying cash couriers and enforcing controls on illicit movement of currency, improving inter-agency coordination including between provincial and federal authorities on combating terror financing risks, it said.
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.
During the FATF meeting, several countries voiced concern on Pakistan's failure to do enough to contain terror funding on its soil.
According to officials, a key point made by these countries is the absence of a proper understanding in Pakistan of "transnational risk" -- risk posed to neighbouring and other nations by designated terrorist organisations based in Pakistan.
The FATF currently has 35 members and two regional organisations--the European Commission and Gulf Cooperation Council.
India is a member of the FATF consultations and its Asia Pacific Group and was represented in the Plenary by a team of officials from the ministries of Home, External Affairs and Finance.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which kept Pakistan on the Grey List for an extended period till February 2020, had warned in October that Islamabad would be put on the Black List if it did not comply with the remaining 22 points in a list of 27 questions.
Pakistan submitted a report comprising answers to 22 questions to the FATF on December 6.
In response to the report, the FATF's Joint Group has sent 150 questions to Pakistan, seeking some clarifications, updates and most importantly actions taken against the madrassas belonging to the proscribed outfits.
"We did receive a response from the FATF on our compliance report through an email in which they raised a set of 150 questions. Some of them are seeking more data, some clarifications, and most important questions related to madrassas and actions taken against them having affiliation with proscribed outfits," The News quoted a top official source as saying.
According to officials, Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed-led Jamat-ud Dawah's network includes 300 seminaries and schools.
In March 2019, Punjab police said that government seized control of 160 madrassas, 32 schools, two colleges, four hospitals, 178 ambulances and 153 dispensaries associated with the JuD and its so-called charity wing Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation (FIF) in the province.
At least 56 madrassas and facilities being run by the JuD and FIF in southern Sindh province were also taken over by authorities in the same month.
Saeed-led JuD is believed to be the front organisation for the Lashkar-e-Taiba which is responsible for carrying out the 2008 Mumbai attacks. The US declared the LeT as a foreign terrorist organisation in June 2014.
Pakistan has been given January 8, 2020 deadline to respond to the 150 questions, the official said on Saturday.
The next FATF meeting is scheduled to be held from January 21 to 24 in Beijing where Pakistan will be given an opportunity to defend the points in the report.
Pakistan expects another relaxation probably up to June 2020 in the FATF's upcoming plenary review meeting, as the February deadline is too short a period for Islamabad to comply with the remaining 22 action plans.
The FATF in its previous statement had said, "Should significant and sustainable progress not be made across the full range of its action plan by the next plenary, the FATF will take action, which could include the FATF calling on its members and urging all jurisdictions to advise their FIs (financial institutions) to give special attention to business relations and transactions with Pakistan".
Earlier, the FATF had asked 27 questions pertaining to Pakistan's efforts to stop terrorism financing. But Islamabad managed to satisfy the global watchdog over just five of them.
Pakistan was placed on the Grey List by the FATF in June last year and was given a plan of action to complete it by October 2019 or face the risk of being placed on the blacklist with Iran and North Korea.
The FATF said Pakistan must demonstrate effective implementation of targeted financial sanctions against all UN-designated terrorists like Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed, Jaish-e-Mohammad founder Maulana Masood Azhar, and those acting for or on their behalf.
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.
(PTI)
The decision will be announced on Friday at the end of the FATF plenary, which is currently ongoing in the French capital of Paris, The Express Tribune quoted the sources in the Finance Ministry as saying.
The FATF plenary pored over a report submitted by Pakistan detailing progress on the implementation of the 27-point Action Plan, according to the sources.
Noting compliance on 14 points, the global financial watchdog agreed to give Pakistan more time until October 2020 to fully comply with the remaining 13 points, the sources said.
They added that the meeting has asked Pakistan to improve prosecution and conviction in terror-financing cases.
It has also called for effective legislation to curb money laundering, The Express Tribune reported citing the sources as saying.
Pakistan has so far successfully managed to avoid the blacklist due to diplomatic support from China, Turkey, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Middle Eastern countries.
It now requires just three votes out of a total 39 members of FATF forum to avoid falling into blacklist.
(IANS)
However, some important bills regarding the anti-money laundering, vital for Pakistan's removal from the FATF grey list, are facing blockage in Parliament due to the opposition, which is demanding to take them into confidence before their passage, The Express Tribune reported.
The Asia-Pacific Joint Group will hold a virtual meeting in which Pakistan's 27-point action plan will be reviewed.
Pakistan, the US, the UK, France and Germany would be in attendance.
China, India, New Zealand and Australia will also participate.
The recommendations will be put before the FATF on October 16.
Also on Saturday National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser said the government would hold consultations with leaders of various political parties before convening a joint session of parliament to pass the bills, Dawn news reported.
Pakistan was placed on the FATF's grey list in June 2018 and had to meet its 27-point action plan to avoid getting blacklisted as a non-compliant nation.
(IANS)
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The FATF plenary was initially slated to take place, but the global watchdog against financial crimes temporarily postponed all mutual evaluations and follow-up deadlines in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, Dawn news said in a reported.
The Paris-based agency also put a general pause in the review process, thus giving Pakistan an additional four months to meet the requirements.
In February, the FATF had given Pakistan a four-month grace period to complete its 27-point action plan after it noted that Islamabad had delivered on 14 points but missed 13 other targets.
On July 28, the government reported to Parliament compliance with 14 points of the 27-point action plan and with 10 of the 40 recommendations of the FATF.
By September 16, however, the joint session of the parliament amended about 15 laws to upgrade its legal system matching international standards as required by the FATF.
The government has already submitted its report to the FATF and its affiliated review groups and responded to their comments, detailing compliance with the 13 outstanding action points, the Dawn news report added.
The plenary had formally placed Pakistan in the grey list in June 2018 due to ‘strategic deficiencies'.
(IANS)
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The development came only a few weeks ahead of the meeting of the FATF -- the Paris-based global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog -- to decide on Pakistan's grey list status.
The first Follow-Up Report on Mutual Evaluation of Pakistan released by the Asia-Pacific Group (APG) underlined that the country's progress on the 40 FATF recommendations on the effectiveness of anti-money laundering and combating financing terror (AML/CFT) system largely remained unchanged -- non-compliant on four counts, partially compliant on 25 counts and largely compliant on nine recommendations, the Dawn News reported.
Pakistan has improved its full compliance on only two of the 40 FATF recommendations, the APG report noted.
Pakistan will remain in enhanced (expedited) follow up, and will continue to report back to the APG on progress to strengthen its implementation of AML/CFT measures, the APG concluded in its 12-page report.
The APG Mutual Evaluations is a peer-review system to determine whether countries meet the compliance standards for money laundering and terror financing.
After a country submits a Mutual Evaluation report, APG members can decide to place a member either through regular or enhanced follow-up. While a regular follow-up means just biennial reports, a country put under enhanced follow-up has to send four reports of compliance the following year.
The APG report noted that though the country has taken measures on recommendations pertaining to money laundering and terror financing, the progress is not yet sufficient to justify a re-rating .
Pakistan had requested for re-ratings on three areas declared partially compliant by the APG in October last year. The request was accepted on one count and rejected on two due to "insufficient" progress to the satisfaction of international experts.
The 41-member APG in August last year had downgraded Pakistan's status to 'Enhanced Follow-up' category from 'Regular Follow-up' over technical deficiencies to meet normal international financial standards by October 2018.
'Enhanced follow-up' is an intensive process of correction that deals with members with significant deficiencies (for technical compliance or effectiveness) in their AML/CFT systems.
The APG's report came ahead of the virtual FATF plenary scheduled for October 21-23 during which it would be decided if Pakistan should be excluded from its grey list, based on a review of Islamabad's performance to meet global commitments and standards on fight against money laundering and terror financing (ML&TF).
FATF had placed Pakistan on its grey list in June 2018 and asked Islamabad to implement a plan of action to curb money laundering and terror financing by the end of 2019 but the deadline was extended later on due to COVID-19 pandemic.
Seeking to wriggle out of the FATF's grey list, debt-ridden Pakistan in August imposed financial sanctions on 88 banned terror groups and their leaders, including 26/11 Mumbai attack mastermind and Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar and underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.
In February, the FATF gave Pakistan, which missed 13 targets, a four-month grace period to complete its 27-point action plan against ML&TF committed with the international community.
In its third plenary held virtually in June, the FATF decided to keep Pakistan in the grey list as Islamabad failed to check flow of money to terror groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).
With Pakistan's continuation in the 'grey list', it is increasingly becoming difficult for the country to get financial aid from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the European Union, thus further enhancing problems for the nation which is in a precarious financial situation.
The APG report noted that Pakistan considered 12 terrorist organisations, including eight UN-designated entities of concern (EOCs), for threat profiles but only in terms of inflows and not outflow of funds to support terrorist activities.
It also noted that the National Risk Assessment (NRA) 2019 has confirmed that abuse of non-profit organisations for terror financing purposes continued to pose a significant threat both domestically and externally and that charities and fund-raising was a source of funds for almost all EOCs.
(PTI)
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