Islamabad: Pakistan will most likely to stay in the FATF grey list since it has failed to fulfil six key obligations of the global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog, including action against two of India’s most wanted terrorists Maulana Masood Azhar and Hafiz Saeed, and the sudden disappearance of more than 4,000 terrorists from its official list.
The virtual plenary of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), to be held on October 21-23, will take the final call on Pakistan’s continuation on its grey list after a thorough review of Islamabad’s performance in fulfilling the global commitments and standards in the fight against money laundering and terror financing. The FATF had given Pakistan a total of 27 action plan obligations for completely checking terror financing of which so far it has cleared 21 but has failed in some of the key tasks, an official privy to the developments said.
The mandates which Pakistan has failed include action against all UN-designated terrorists like Jaish-e-Muhammed (JeM) chief Azhar, Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Saeed and the outfit’s operational commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi. Besides, FATF has noted that the names of over 4,000 terrorists suddenly disappeared from its original list of 7,600 under Schedule IV of its Anti Terrorism Act. “Under these circumstances, it is almost certain that Pakistan will continue in the FATF grey list,” the official said. Also, the four nominating countries - the US, Britain, France and Germany - are not satisfied with Islamabad’s commitment to taking strong action against the terror groups operating from its soil.
Azhar, Saeed and Lakhvi are the most wanted terrorists in India for their involvement in numerous terrorist acts, including the 26/11 Mumbai terror strikes and the bombing of a CRPF bus at Pulwama in Jammu & Kashmir last year. With Pakistan’s continuation in the grey list, it is increasingly becoming difficult for Islamabad to get financial aid from the IMF, World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the European Union, thus further enhancing problems for the cash-strapped country.
