Pakistan will not be able to get financial support from IMF, World Bank, ADB and EU due to being in gray list
Pakistan will remain on the “gray (surveillance)” list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) until February 2021 as it has failed to stop moneylending and funding terrorism. Pakistan had to complete 6 tasks which Pakistan has been put on the gray list of FATF for not completing. The 6 tasks Pakistan has not been able to fulfill include Jaul-e-Mohammed’s leader Maulana Masood Azhar and Failure to take action against Lashkar-e-Taiba leader Hafiz Saeed. Both these terrorists are most wanted in India.
A digital plenary session of the FATF was held in the last three days in which it was decided that Pakistan would remain on its “gray” list. Pakistan has not been able to meet global standards in stopping money laundering and terror funding.
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“Pakistan will remain on the watch list or the gray list,” FATF President Marcus Pleier told an online press conference from Paris.
He said that Pakistan has so far failed to complete 6 out of a total of 27 action plans to stop the terror funding and hence it will remain in the gray list of the FATF. He said that Pakistan should ban and prosecute those involved in Terror funding. The head of the FATF said, “Pakistan needs to make more efforts to stop financing terrorism.”
Sources said Pakistan has failed to take action against UN-banned militants such as Jaish-e-Mohammed’s leader Azhar, Lashkar-e-Taiba leader Hafiz Saeed and the organization’s operational commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.
Apart from this, sources said, the FATF also kept in mind that under Schedule Four of the Anti-Terrorism Act, the names of more than 4,000 militants suddenly disappeared from its official list. Now the situation of Pakistan will be reviewed in the next FATF meeting to be held in February next year.
Pleier said that North Korea and Iran are on the black list of the FATF because the two countries have not made any progress. While Iceland and Mongolia have been removed from the gray list after completing the action plans. Sources said that four countries – America, Britain, France and Germany, were not satisfied with Pakistan’s commitment to take strong action against terrorist groups operating from their soil.
With Pakistan being in the gray list, it is now becoming difficult for this country to get financial support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the European Union, so the problems for the neighboring country are increasing now. One whose economic condition is already bad.
Pakistan needed 12 votes out of 39 to exit the gray list and move to the white list. Whereas he needed the support of three countries to avoid the black list. China, Turkey and Malaysia have been consistent supporters of this. The FATF had put Pakistan on the gray list on June 2018 and asked it to complete an action plan by October 2019. Since then, this country has been on the list continuously for failing to complete the FATF action plan.
The FATF currently has 39 members, including two regional organizations, the European Commission and the Gulf Cooperation Council. India is a member of FATF Consulting and its Asia Pacific Group.
