In the last meeting held in February, the FATF retained Pakistan in its ‘Gray List’ and to prepare an Action Plan to tackle Terror Financing before June. said.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan
There is little more than a month left for the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to review Pakistan’s anti-terrorism financing system. In such a situation, Islamabad has approved new rules to ensure investigation of such crimes by special agencies. Experts, however, believe that the steps taken by Pakistan due to the sluggishness of its commitments to crack down on terrorist groups are still not enough to come out of the ‘Gray List’.
According to the Hindustan Times news, experts in this regard have pointed to the recent decision of Britain which included Pakistan in the list of ‘high-risk countries’ for terror financing and money laundering. In the last meeting held in February, the FATF had retained Pakistan in its ‘gray list’ and asked it to prepare an action plan to tackle Terror Financing before June.
The remaining three points are also ‘serious’
Pakistan is said to have ‘extensively addressed’ 24 out of 27 points in its action plan, but Marcus Pleian said that the remaining deficiencies are also ‘serious’. The FATF specifically called on Pakistan to ensure that Terror Financing investigations and actions target designated terrorists on behalf of the United Nations, effective and prohibitive sanctions are imposed as a result of the action and that terrorists designated on behalf of the UN Targeted financial sanctions against should be implemented effectively.
New rules cleared to come out of ‘gray-list’
According to the report, before the virtual meeting of FATF during June 21-25, the Government of Pakistan has approved new rules for the seizure and auction of properties related to anti-money laundering cases. At the same time, the police and provincial authorities have been asked to hand over the investigation and prosecution of such cases to special agencies.
According to the Dawn newspaper report, earlier this month the Federal Cabinet of Pakistan approved AML (Seized Asset Management) Rules 2021 and AML (Referral) Rules 2021. The newspaper, citing its sources, said that the steps being taken by the Government of Pakistan are aimed at fulfilling the remaining three points of the FATF’s action plan.
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