Will Pakistan Be Removed From 'Grey List'? FATF To Decide In Its Plenary Meeting Today

In June 2018, Pakistan was placed on the grey list for failing to do enough to combat terrorist funding and money laundering.

At a plenary meeting today, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will decide whether to remove Pakistan from its "grey list" of nations subject to increased scrutiny.

In June 2018, Pakistan was placed on the grey list for failing to do enough to combat terrorist funding and money laundering. Pakistan is generally likely to be removed from the list, since the FATF's most recent plenary conference in June found that the country had "largely addressed" all 34 action items in two action plans provided by the multilateral watchdog.

The plenary meeting in Paris on October 20-21 will be the first to be presided over by Singapore's T Raja Kumar, who succeeded Germany's Marcus Pleyer in June.

The summit will evaluate examples of nations under intensified surveillance or on the grey list, including Pakistan, and will offer recommendations on steps to prevent shell corporations from being used to launder illicit assets. It will also take up ideas to improve global asset recovery.

Delegates from 206 FATF members and observer organisations, including the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations, the World Bank, Interpol, and the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units, will attend the working group and plenary sessions in Paris.

FATF issued Pakistan a 27-point action plan in 2018 to combat terror funding, followed by a seven-point action plan last year to combat money laundering.

From August 29 to September 2, a 15-member FATF and its regional affiliate, the Asia Pacific Group (APG), visited Pakistan to review its efforts to curb terror financing and punish individuals implicated, including members of UN-designated terror organisations such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).

This delegation's report will be given at the plenary meeting.

A Pakistani anti-terrorism court convicted and jailed LeT operator Sajid Mir on terror finance charges just days before the previous FATF plenary conference in June.

This occurred after Islamabad claimed for months that Mir, who played a critical role in planning and orchestrating the 2008 Mumbai attacks, was dead.

Despite such moves by Pakistani authorities, sources familiar with the situation said that worries about the inability to prosecute other leaders of UN-designated organisations, including as JeM commander Masood Azhar, remained.

In recent weeks, Pakistani police have said that Azhar is thought to be in Afghanistan, a charge that the Taliban establishment in Kabul has refuted.