Commerce Reporter

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister Hammad Azhar said on Friday that Pakistan has been given the sternest action plan by the Financial Action Task Force while the FATF president has praised the performance of Islamabad regarding its implementation, media reported.

Hammad Azhar made the statement while addressing a media briefing regarding the FATF’s decision for retaining Pakistan on its grey list.

He clarified that Pakistan is not facing any danger to fall on FATF’s blacklist as the debate was made on the country’s placement on the whitelist. Pakistan will not face any sanctions after being retained in the grey list, he added.

Azhar said that FATF has given a new seven-point action plan to Pakistan and it is important to implement the previous and new action plan for getting out of the grey list. Islamabad has successfully completed the implementation of 26 out of 27 points of the previous action plan which primarily focused on counter-terrorism.

The federal minister said that FATF President Dr Marcus Pleyer has admitted that the Pakistani government has made substantial progress in making its counter-terrorist financing systems stronger and more effective. Azhar continued that FATF decided to retain Pakistan on its grey list besides granting two years for implementing the new action plan.

The country had complied with the 75 out of 82 points given by FATF in 2018 including 31 out of 40 recommendations made by the International Co-operation Review Group (ICRG), whereas, the new action plan is focused on anti-money laundering.

The latest action containing points for anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism is easier as compared to the previous one and the government will take less time to implement it, said Azhar.

Azhar said that the federal government will try to implement the new action plan within 12 months instead of two years. He added that the government had passed 17 bills related to curb money laundering and terror financing.

Azhar said that the real face of India has exposed after the neighbouring country tried to politicise the FATF platform which also came into observation by the representatives. India has attempted to convince FATF for placing Pakistan on the blacklist, however, New Delhi faced defeat due to effective steps taken by Islamabad.