By S. Sultan

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will resolve whether to eradicate Pakistan from its grey list when its full session takes place in Paris on October 20-21. Among other issues on the agenda, the FATF will inspect the valuation of an on-site team that visited Pakistan in September to confirm the actions taken by the country to fulfill the plan of action. In September, a 15-member FATF team silently visited Pakistan, a concluding phase earlier the country’s departure from the grey list. The results of the team would be deliberated and revised in the next meeting of the FATF in its imminent plenary session.
The optimistic consequence of the onsite team’s conclusions would allow Pakistan to lastly come clean over shortages in the system to control money laundering and terror-supporting. It was confirmed that the FATF team, which was given a state guest-level protocol, remained in the country from August 29 to September 2. The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) permitted an exceptional grant of Rs7 million for the FATF Secretariat to deliver the FATF team housing, food, and travel.
The visit was kept under a veil of secrecy. However, the FATF delegation held meetings with the relevant authorities and confirmed the steps Pakistan had taken to achieve the conditions of international financial overseer on money laundering and terror funding. The FATF, in June, had implied Pakistan’s exclusion from the grey list after it determined that Pakistan complied with the 34-point plan of action and arranged to send its team for the confirmation of those steps.
Pakistan was placed on the grey list by the FATF in June 2018 for the lack of its system to control money laundering and terror funding. It was first given a 27-point action plan and later another 7-point plan to comply with the FATF’s values. The major hesitant block was the trial of certain UNSC-designated individuals alleged of terror funding. Earlier in the June plenary FATF meeting in Berlin, the Pakistani anti-terrorism court sentenced the deputy chief of LeT’s international operation in a terror financing case, somewhat that convinced the FATF members to admit Pakistan’s improvement.
It is being anticipated by Pakistani that the FATF team would give a constructive valuation of the country’s development. Officials, however, warned that the neighboring country might still use its influence to drag Pakistan’s case. The United States is believed to have played a key role in safeguarding the onsite visit for Pakistan as it conveyed satisfaction with the country’s actions to curb terror financing, particularly in indicting certain individuals.
The exodus from the FATF grey list will reinstate Pakistan’s appearance and give assurance to foreign investors for doing projects in the country. The grey-listing makes it hard for countries to do monetary dealings and raises the cost of doing trade. Pakistan is probable to be detached from the grey list will help give stimulus to its struggling economy.
Pakistan has been listed among the top 10 countries implementing the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) standards, a move which improves the country’s chances to get rid of the anti-money laundering watchdog’s grey list. The FATF meeting will be held from October 17 to 21. There is a robust likelihood that Pakistan would come out of FATF’s grey list on October 21 as it had satisfied all the FATF conditions.
The FATF team visited Pakistan in the last week of August. The anti-terror financing watchdog’s technical team had returned pleased with Islamabad’s actions after meeting all the relevant authorities. The FATF review team aimed to gauge the political will to implement the anti-money laundering and anti-terror laws.
Pakistan was placed on the grey list by FATF in June 2018 for shortages in its system to curb money laundering and terror funding. It was first given a 27-point action plan and later another 7-point plan to fulfill the FATF’s standards.