Pakistan has been put on the Grey List of the international terror financing watchdog Financial Action Task Force. Islamabad has been warned of action for its failure to combat money laundering and terror financing. Decision of FATF, was taken today after the completion of its five day plenary session in Paris.
By making this decision public, the FATF has given notice to the global financial institutions that they need to prepare to red flag the jurisdiction and ready their systems for the eventuality in February 2020.
If Pakistan continues with the ‘Grey List’ or put in ‘Dark Grey’ list, it would be very difficult for the country to get financial aid from the IMF, the World Bank and the European Union which will make its financial condition more precarious.
The FATF Plenary noted that Pakistan addressed only five out of the 27 tasks given to it in controlling funding to terror groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad. Both these groups are responsible for series of attacks in India.
In light of the additional fact of Pakistan’s poor performance on its mutual evaluation, chances of Pakistan exiting the Grey List in the next few years are now reduced to nil and the possibility of a formal Black Listing in February 2020 is now highly probable.
Pakistan was placed on the Grey List by the FATF in June last year. It was given a plan of action to complete it by October 2019, or face the risk of being placed on the black list with Iran and North Korea.
The FATF is an inter-governmental body established in 1989 to combat money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system.
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