Last Updated on: 4th July 2023, 12:29 am
The report notes that FATF recommendations for Pakistan attain a compliant rating of 31 out of 40.
The Asia-Pacific Group (APG) on Money Laundering, a regional subsidiary of the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF), kept Pakistan on “extended surveillance” status for sufficient overdue needs while improving the country’s score to 21 of the 40 technical recommendations of the Global Observatory against Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism.
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Pakistan was graylisted by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in June 2018, and the country is struggling to get out of it. The second follow-up report (FUR) published by APG on the mutual assessment of Pakistan also downgraded the country on one criterion.
The report notes that Pakistan was re-rated ‘Compliant’ on five points and another 15 rated as “Largely Compliant” and one as “Partly Compliant”.
The Newspaper Dawn reported that Pakistan is now following a total of “seven recommendations and by and large” on 24 other recommendations.
The country partially fulfilled “with seven recommendations and non-conforming” with two of a total of 40 recommendations.
Overall, Pakistan now complies with or largely complies with 31 of the 40 FATF recommendations. The cut-off date for this assessment was October 1, 2020, which means that Islamabad may have made further progress since then, which will be assessed at a later date.
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“Pakistan will move from enhanced (accelerated) surveillance to enhanced surveillance and will continue to report to the APG on progress in strengthening the implementation of anti-money laundering and terrorist financing measures,” the APG said.
Pakistan presented its third progress report in February 2021, which has yet to be evaluated.
“Overall, Pakistan has made remarkable progress in addressing technical compliance gaps identified in its Mutual Evaluation Report (MER) and has been reassessed based on 22 recommendations,” added the APG.
Pakistan has been on the FATF gray list since June 2018.
In February of this year, the global terrorist-financing watchdog, the FATF, put Pakistan on its “gray list” until June after it came to the conclusion that Islamabad had failed to strategically remove its loopholes. for Pakistan.
Keeping Pakistan on the gray list means it will not have a break in access to finance in the form of investment and assistance from international organizations, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Pakistan faces the difficult task of removing its name from the FATF gray list. As it stands, Islamabad is fighting to protect terrorists while implementing the FATF’s plan of action.
