Islamabad, 22 October 2022 (TDI): The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global money laundering and terrorism financing watchdog, removed Pakistan from its grey list on Friday.
Pakistan in FATF’s grey list
The Financial Action Task Force put Pakistan on its grey list of untrustworthy jurisdictions in June 2018. FATF had put Pakistan on its grey list because of strategic counter-terrorist financing-related deficiencies.
Removal from the grey list
Pakistan was removed from FATF’s grey list at the end of a two-day meeting in Paris on Friday.
The President of FATF, Raja Kumar, said “it has two concurrent action plans. After a lot of work by Pakistani authorities, they have largely addressed all of the action plan items.”
Kumar also clarified that “as a result of these action plans, Pakistan has made significant improvements to strengthen the effectiveness of this framework for combating terrorism financing”
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Moreover, he said, “Pakistan had addressed technical deficiencies to meet the commitments of its action plans regarding strategic deficiencies that the FATF identified in June 2018 and June 2021.”
FATF also welcomed Pakistan’s significant progress in improving its anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regime. Pakistan would also receive a reputational boost after its removal from the grey list.
The Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif, congratulated the whole nation on Pakistan’s exit from FATF’s grey list.
He said that “Pakistan exiting the FATF grey list is a vindication of our determined and sustained efforts over the years.”
“I would like to congratulate our civil and military leadership as well as all institutions whose hard work led to today’s success.” The Prime Minister added.
The Foreign Minister of Pakistan, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari also congratulated the country on the occasion.
He said that “Congratulations to the people of Pakistan. Pakistan has officially been removed from the FATF’s grey list Pakistan Zindabad”
After its removal from the grey list, Pakistan would no longer be subject to the FATF’s increased monitoring process.
