The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will monitor Pakistan’s progress in implementing a proposed plan against financing for militant organisations ahead of a meeting in October, the international watchdog body said on Friday.
Its Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) met in Canberra this week to discuss reports on countries, including Pakistan, which was last year placed on a “grey list” of countries with inadequate controls over money laundering and terrorism financing.
News agency PTI quoted unnamed Indian officials as saying that Pakistan had been put in the Enhanced Expedited Follow Up List by the APG.
Pakistan was placed on the FATF’s grey list last June and the multilateral watchdog said as recently as in February the country hadn’t done enough to counter the financing of groups such as JeM and LeT. At the time, the FATF laid out a 27-point action plan, with a deadline set for October 15. The reports discussed by APG “will now be subject to post-plenary quality and consistency review prior to publication,” it said in a statement on its website after the meeting ended.
Final publication on the APG website is expected in early October 2019, it added.
Separately, Pakistan’s finance ministry rejected as baseless reports that Islamabad was put on FATF’s black list. Pakistan has been placed on so-called “enhanced follow-up” in line with FATF’s evaluation procedures, the ministry said in a statement.
“…Pakistan would be required to submit follow-up progress reports to APG on quarterly basis,” it added.
First Published:
Aug 24, 2019 00:13 IST
Source: HindustanTimes