The team of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has reached Pakistan for review of the implementation of its action plan after which the global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog would announce whether Pakistan would remain in the grey list or not.
The FATF team would visit the headquarters of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the directorate of Anti-Money Laundering (AML). AML and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) Directorate would brief the visiting team over the implementation of FATF’s action plan.
The FATF team will also compile a report after reviewing the strategy for future actions, on basis of which the announcement of removing Pakistan from the grey list or not will be made.
Pakistan has taken solid steps in order to comply with the action plan including the conviction of Sajid Mir by an anti-terrorism court in terror financing that really convinced the members of FATF to acknowledge the progress of Pakistan.
According to media report, the entry of visitors has been prohibited into the FIA headquarters due to FATF team’s visit.
In June, FATF found that Pakistan had completed the action plan and hinted at the removal from the grey list conditional to an on-site verification of the steps. The successful on-site visit would pave way for Pakistan to get rid of the grey list.
On June 17, FATF said that Pakistan had completed implementation on all action points and the final decision of removing it from the grey list would be made after on-site verification.
The FATF statement released after the June meeting had stated that according to initial determination, Pakistan had substantially completed the two action plans that covered 34 items and an on-site visit would be conducted for verification of Pakistan’s implementation on AML/CFT reforms to sustain implementation and improvement in the future.
FATF placed Pakistan on its grey list in June 2018 after deficiencies were pointed out in its system to curb terror financing and money laundering. The watchdog had initially given a 27-point action plan but another 7-point plan was handed for compliance with FATF’s standards.
