A day after global financial watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) told Pakistan to crack down on terror funding by October this year or face consequences, India on Saturday said it expects Islamabad to take "credible, verifiable, irreversible and sustainable measures" to address concerns related to terrorism and terror financing within the deadline.
"The FATF has decided to continue to keep Pakistan on its compliance document (i.e. Grey List) for its failure to complete the action plan items due in January and May 2019,”the Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman said in response to media queries. He said India expected “Pakistan to take all necessary steps to effectively implement the FATF Action Plan fully within the remaining time frame i.e. by September 2019 in accordance with its political commitment to the FATF and take credible, verifiable, irreversible and sustainable measures to address global concerns related to terrorism and terrorist financing emanating from any territory under its control.”
Paris-based multilateral FATF, at its meeting held in Florida, US, on Friday held out the possibility of blacklisting Pakistan saying Islamabad had failed for the second consecutive time to implement an action plan to counter terror financing. The anti-terror financing watchdog placed Pakistan on its “grey list” in June last year for failing to counter fund-raising by outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM),Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD), Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation, al-Qaeda, Islamic State, Haqqani Network and the Taliban.
During an assessment in February this year, FATF said Pakistan had made “limited progress” in curbing terror financing and failed to show proper understanding of risks posed by banned groups such as Islamic State and al-Qaeda. Following an assessment at its plenary meeting in Orlando, Florida, during June 19-21, FATF expressed “concern that not only did Pakistan fail to complete its action plan items with January deadlines, it also failed to complete its action plan items due May 2019”.
“The FATF strongly urges Pakistan to swiftly complete its action plan by October 2019 when the last set of action plan items are set to expire. Otherwise, the FATF will decide the next step at that time for insufficient progress,” FATF said in a statement issued on Friday. The statement said since June last year, Pakistan had made a high-level political commitment to work with FATF and APG and to address its “strategic counter-terrorist financing-related deficiencies” but “it does not demonstrate a proper understanding of Pakistan’s transnational TF (terror-financing) risk”.
Pakistan should demonstrate that its remedial actions and sanctions are applied in cases of terror financing violations and these actions have an effect on compliance by financial institution, the statement added. FATF said Pakistan should also demonstrate that “facilities and services owned or controlled by designated persons are deprived of their resources and the usage of the resources” – a reference to UN-designated terrorists such as LeT founder Hafiz Saeed and JeM chief Masood Azhar allegedly having access to the financial assets of their groups.
The watchdog also asked Pakistan to take action to “identify and take enforcement action against illegal money or value transfer services” and to improve “inter-agency coordination including between provincial and federal authorities on combating” terror financing.
