'Pakistan likely to remain in grey list as FATF meet begins' Says Report

NEW DELHI: With its plenary beginning on Monday Pakistan may remain in the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) though the authorities assert that the country qualifies to be moved out on merit, Dawn reported.

Background discussions with key officials and foreign diplomats suggest that the jury is divided — with the authorities claiming sufficient progress to be confident of a positive outcome but some diplomats suggesting that even in the best case scenario Pakistan would remain in the increased monitoring list until June.

Ahead of the plenary, the FATF updated the overall performance of all countries. Based on this update, Pakistan has been shown improving compliance on two out of the 40 recommendations of the FATF on effectiveness of anti-money laundering and combating financing terror (AML/CFT) systems. It finds Pakistan's progress non-compliant on four counts, partially compliant on 25 counts and largely compliant on nine recommendations. Pakistan's evaluation at the plenary would be based on a 27-point action plan and not on these 40 recommendations, the report said.

The report mentioned that diplomats said they had not seen this time the kind of aggressive diplomatic effort Islamabad had been making in the past, particularly before the October 2020 plenary review. They said the plenary could discuss all options, including blacklisting Pakistan, keeping it in the grey list or removing it from the grey list. (IANS)

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