Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi questioned the decision of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) of keeping Pakistan on its “increased monitoring list”, also known as the grey list, after the country completed 26 out of the 27 points under the action plan given by the financial watchdog.
Qureshi said there was “no room” to keep Pakistan on the grey list after it had implemented nearly the entire action plan, according to a report by Radio Pakistan.
The foreign minister said it needed to be looked into whether FATF was “being used for political purposes”, adding that “some powers desire to keep the sword of FATF hanging over Pakistan.”
Qureshi made it clear that whatever steps Pakistan took were in its own interests. He said it is in our interest to stop money laundering and terror financing.
A day earlier, FATF President Dr Marcus Pleyer said Pakistan would remain on the grey list till it addresses the single remaining item on the original action plan agreed to in June 2018 as well as all items on a parallel action plan handed out by the watchdog’s regional partner — the Asia Pacific Group (APG) — in 2019.
“Pakistan has made significant progress and it has largely addressed 26 out of 27 items on the action plan it first committed to in June 2018,” he said at a virtual press conference after the financial watchdog’s five-day plenary meeting.
