The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will not blacklist Pakistan

WASHINGTON: The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will not blacklist Pakistan at its annual meeting in Paris but could still keep it on the watch list.

This was said by Michael Kigelman, a South Asian scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington.

The meeting began on Monday, but a planning session will be held on February 19, which will decide whether or not to keep Pakistan on the watchlist known as the Grey List.

Michael Kugelman said Pakistan's exit from the grey list is premature, and it will be decided at a meeting later this year.

"It is clear to me that Pakistan will not be blacklisted," he added.

But there is an indication that Pakistan will probably be removed from the grey list in the next few months, if not weeks, said non-resident Fellow Ehir Yunus of Washington's Atlantic Council.

Speaking at a seminar on Pakistan at the American Institute of Peace in Washington, he emphasized that "this will further increase the flow of financial capital, which is at least short-term for the country's economy." Good for them. "

Michael Klugliman said that US officials believe that Pakistan has made significant progress with regard to the FATF action plan and that Hafiz Saeed was convicted of financing terrorism would be encouraging for FATF members. There is a hint. '

He added that "the question of the grey list has gotten more complicated, Washington is still waiting for major and irreversible measures and it is not good to say that the disclosure of the disclosure is 'missing', indicating that in the coming weeks. Until things change, Pakistan may face difficulties in convincing the FATF to exit the grey list. '

In addition, Washington's Brooklyn Institute's Madiha Afzal said in a message on Twitter that Hafiz Saeed's sentence was "meaningful" but importantly, how his appeal would be handled.

He raised a question: Will Hafiz Saeed's conviction is annulled? Especially if Pakistan comes out of the grey list. '

It should be remembered that Pakistan was previously on the grey list from 2012 to 2015, but was removed in 2016 after a series of stringent reforms legislation on anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism laws.

Authorities presenting the country's case in Paris are confident that if they succeed in convincing some Western countries that the measures taken after the last meeting of the FATF in October 2019 will be funded by terrorism If the support is terminated, Islamabad may fall out of the grey list.