While Pakistan is retained in the ‘Grey List’ of Global terror financing watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Thursday, FATF president Marcus Pleyer said that three new countries including Turkey, Jordan, and Mali have been added to the list.
In a briefing, Pleyer said that Pakistan is cooperating and only four action items are yet to be completed. There was no question of blacklisting Pakistan for now, he said.
The FATF had retained Pakistan on its ‘Grey List’ for failing to check money laundering, leading to terror financing in June this year. The global terror watchdog had asked Islamabad to investigate and prosecute UN-designated terror terrorists like Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar.
It had further asked the country to work to address its strategically important deficiencies.
In June 2018, FATF placed Pakistan on the Grey List. Therefore Pakistan continues to be in the list since then due to its failure to comply with the FATF mandates.
It has become increasingly difficult for the nation to get financial aid from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the European Union due to its placing on the Grey List.
Further non-compliance with FATF mandates may result in Pakistan being placed on the Black List. It has however, avoided it so far with the help of China, Turkey and Malaysia.
