Minister for Industries and Manufacturing Hammad Azhar on Saturday stated the Monetary Motion Job Drive’s (FATF) consensus determination to maintain Pakistan on the watchdog’s ‘gray record’ for an additional 4 months was a “diplomatic victory” for the federal government.
“FATF has acknowledged our high-level political commitment and significant progress,” the minister stated in a tweet.
He stated some circles had been propagating “false and baseless information about abstention or negative voting in the meeting”.
Some social media posts had claimed on Friday that a number of nations together with Afghanistan and India voted in opposition to Pakistan on the watchdog’s plenary and that another nations together with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates abstained from the vote.
The minister clarified that no voting standards was utilized for the FATF determination, saying: “Yesterday’s consensus decision without any voting is our diplomatic victory.”
Azhar stated some nations talked about within the “fake news” weren’t even members of the FATF.
“Pakistan enjoys broad international support and cooperation on FATF,” he added.
Sadly, some circles are propagating false and baseless details about abstention or damaging voting within the assembly.Some nations talked about within the pretend information aren’t even members of FATF. Pakistan enjoys broad worldwide assist and cooperation on FATF. 2/2— Hammad Azhar (@Hammad_Azhar) October 24, 2020
Earlier this week, International Workplace spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri had rejected “false media reports” relating to Saudi Arabia’s position within the evaluation of Pakistan’s FATF motion plan, saying the 2 nations “enjoy strong fraternal ties”.
The FATF had introduced on Friday that Pakistan will proceed to stay on its gray record for an additional 4 months until February 2021 for six out of 27 unmet motion plan targets on anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT).
“To date, Pakistan has made progress across all action plan items and has now largely addressed 21 of the 27 action items. As all action plan deadlines have expired, the FATF strongly urges Pakistan to swiftly complete its full action plan by February 2021,” the watchdog stated in an announcement. “The FATF takes note of the significant progress made on a number of action plan items,” it added.
The following plenary is due on Feb 21-26.
Pakistan welcomed the result, saying “this is indicative of the confidence of the FATF on the efforts of Pakistani government”.
The industries minister, who led the Pakistani delegation to the digital plenary, stated: “Blacklisting Pakistan was now off the table.”
FATF had formally positioned Pakistan on the gray record in June 2018 as a result of ‘strategic deficiencies’ in its AML/CFT regime after a push from India supported by america, the UK and another European nations. Pakistan then dedicated on the highest degree to a 27-point motion plan, however failed to fulfill deadlines.
The motion plan objects which have been addressed by Pakistan embody extremely essential areas of monetary sector, unlawful hawala/hundi, cross-border forex regime, worldwide cooperation in terrorist financing circumstances, amendments to the Anti-Terrorism Act, implementation of focused monetary sanctions by monetary establishments, making use of sanctions for AML/CFT violations and controlling services and companies owned or managed by designated individuals and entities.
Nonetheless, in view of the six objects in “Partially Addressed” class, the plenary assembly determined to take care of established order with respect to classification of Pakistan, in the intervening time. Appreciable work has already been carried out on these six objects and Pakistan would proceed to make efforts to finish the remaining objects consistent with its technique by February 2021, the finance ministry stated.
