‘Never want to slip into this again’: Hina Rabbani Khar on FATF grey list

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar on Saturday addressed a press conference following the announcement by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

“Pakistan’s positive and speedy progress was greatly appreciated and welcomed by FATF members,” she said. “All action plans items have been ticked off, largely addressed, and nothing is pending.”

“It marks the beginning of the end process that will eventually culminate in the exit of Pakistan from FATF’s grey list, InshaAllah and hopefully forever,” added Khar.

“Pakistan is one step away from exiting the grey list,” she added. “I also want to stress that Pakistan’s cooperation with FATF and the international community is grounded in our strategic objective of strengthening our economy and improving its integration in the international financial system.”

Talking about the requirement of on-site visit Khar said, “When you authorise a country’s removal from the grey list, the first step is to authorise an on-site technical evaluation, which has been done in this plenary.”

“Never again will we want to be part of any list that will require us to divert our attention from our national requirements to [international] reporting requirements. We never want to slip into this again. This is the biggest lesson,” she said while talking about lessons Pakistan had learned during meetings with FATF.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) announced on Friday (June 17) that it has begun the process of removing Pakistan from the grey list. FATF monitored Pakistan for four years and now the financial watchdog has expressed its satisfaction with Pakistan’s performance. The announcement comes after FATF’s four-day plenary session in Berlin.

“Pakistan has substantially completed its two action plans, covering 34 items, and warrants an on-site visit to verify that the implementation of Pakistan’s AML/CFT reforms has begun and is being sustained,” said a statement by FATF.

However, Pakistan will be placed out of the grey list once the FATF team would conduct an on-site visit of Pakistan.

Director-General Inter Services Public Relations (DG ISPR) in a tweet termed the development as a “great achievement”.

The tweet further added: “Core cell @ GHQ which steered the national effort & civil – military team which synergised implementation of the action plan made it possible, making Pak proud, COAS.”

Hina Rabbani Khar tweeted: “Congrats Pak! FATF declares both Action Plans complete. Intl community has unanimously ack our efforts. Our success is the result of 4 yrs of challenging journey. Pak reaffirms resolve to continue the momentum and give our economy a boost. Well done Pak Team FATF. Pak Zindabad!”

Pakistan was placed on FATF’s grey list in 2018.