Paris, October 15: FATF (Financial Action Task Force) plenary session convened on Sunday in Paris and conclude on October 18. In a statement ahead of the plenary an FATF statement said that the areas of discussion would include “Progress by Iran, Pakistan and other countries that present a risk to the financial system”.
Pakistan is in trouble with adverse review reports which will come up for discussion this week. While Pakistan will submit a dossier of actions taken by Islamabad agains terror financing and money laundering, FATF will finalise its decision on Pakistan on Friday, Oct 18 in Paris.
Sources indicate that Pakistan is on the verge of strong action by FATF, given its inadequate performance, whereby it managed to pass in only 6 of 27 items.
According to FATF rules there is one essential stage between Grey and Black List, referred to as Dark Grey.
This is the issuance of a strong warning, so that the concerned country gets one last chance to improve. As per indications Pakistan will be isolated by all members for not doing enough. This would be the first Plenary under the Chinese Presidency of Xiangmin Liu.
India, UK, US, France and many other nations have been consistently pushing for action against these terror networks and terrorists but to no avail. Friday will be crucial for Pakistan. For now it is trying very hard to get off the grey list and India is working the channels to ensure blacklisting process is initiated.
But, with support from China, Malaysia and Turkey; Pakistan may not be blacklisted since only a minimum of three votes are required to prevent a blacklisting at FATF but to get off the grey list, Pakistan would require the support of 15 nations which it does not have as of now.
