india to push fatf
New Delhi, May 24 -- India will push for placing Pakistan in the grey list again at the Financial Action Task Force's (FATF) plenary meeting in June , making available evidence that Islamabad failed to enforce anti-money laundering and counter-terror reforms and made no headway in prosecuting UN-designated terrorists, a senior official said.
There is a strong case to put Pakistan back in the grey list, this person added on condition of anonymity. The global money laundering and terrorism financing watchdog holds three plenary meetings that usually take place in June, October and February of each year. Pakistan is due for an evaluation in 2026 and non-compliance or slippage could result in a grey listing.
Countries in the grey list are given an action plan, and their implementation of this is monitored every four months. If countries in the grey list fail to show any progress, then they are pushed to the "black list" and subjected to counter measures. Countries which do not participate in FATF's mutual evaluation process - Iran and North Korea, for instance -- are also blacklisted.
Pakistan's inclusion in the grey list would hurt its credit worthiness and the cash-strapped country will face severe difficulties in getting financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to support it. In October 2022, FATF took Pakistan off its grey list after the country ostensibly strengthened the effectiveness of its anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing (CFT) regime.
India hopes to make a case by highlighting Pakistan's support for proscribed terrorists such as Hafiz Abdul Rauf, a US-designated terrorist and senior Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative, who was seen in images of a funeral attended by Pakistani army personnel after India's strikes at terror hubs in Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir as part of Operation Sindoor, a response to the targetted killing of 26 people, 24 of them Hindu, in a terror strike at Pahalgam, Jammu & Kashmir. Pakistan tried to pass off the terrorist an "ordinary family man".
India will also oppose any funding for Pakistan at the World Bank's upcoming meetings, the official said. The World Bank holds two key meetings in a year - Spring meetings in April and Annual meetings in October. India is making all efforts to expose Pakistan's clandestine support to terrorists.
A second official, who too asked not to be named, said, "Pakistan is unlikely to meet those conditions and thus it would not be able to avail the IMF funding."...
To read the full article or to get the complete feed from this publication, please
Contact Us.