ISLAMABAD, 5 October 2020, (TON): A virtual meeting of the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) plenary scheduled for 21-23 October 2020, will decide if Pakistan should be excluded from its ‘Grey List, based on a review of Islamabad’s actions against money laundering and terror financing.

The FATF plenary was scheduled some time back but in the wake of of the Covid-19 pandemic, the global watchdog against financial crimes postponed all mutual evaluations and deadlines.  in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Due to the postponement, Pakistan got additional four months to meet the requirements.

In February, the FATF had given Pakistan four additional month as grace period to complete its 27-point action plan as Islamabad delivered and show improvement on 14 points but missed 13 other targets. Presently, Pakistan has to submit compliance report on action plan on the basis of 40 recommendations of the FATF.

If we recall, European Union's Generalized Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) is also conditional to Pakistan's compliance to 27 international covenants, treaties and conventions and the European Union is mandated to review Pakistan's human rights progress every two years under GSP+.