ISLAMABAD, Nov 15 (EW): With Pakistan’s exit from the Financial Action Task Force list, the United Kingdom has removed South Asian country from its list of ‘High-Risk Third Countries’.
Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari shared the good news on Twitter by sharing a picture of the official document. FM mentioned that the decision was taken on Islamabad’s early completion of the action plan of anti-terror watchdog.
The official document shared by Mr Bhutto reads “His Majesty’s Treasury issued an amendment to the UK’s ‘High-Risk Third Countries’ list on 14 November 2022, through a Statuary Instrument. The amendment removes Pakistan from the list in accordance with the decision taken by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on 21 October 2022.”
It further reads that the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) recognises the progress South Asian country has made to improve money laundering and terrorist financing controls.
Pakistan removed from global ‘terrorism’ financing list
Earlier in October, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) freed Pakistan from its “grey list” as the South Asian country has successfully implemented an action plan to strengthen its laws to curb money laundering and terror financing.
FATF President Raja Kumar announced the decision in his press conference at the conclusion of its plenary, stating that Pakistan had been on the “grey list” since 2018.
“It has two concurrent action plans. After a lot of work by Pakistani authorities, they have largely addressed all of the action plan items.”
Kumar said that that the FATF task force had conducted an onsite visit at the end of August. “The onsite team verified that there is a high level of commitment from the Pakistani leadership, sustainability of reforms and commitment to make improvements in the future,” he added.
“As a result of these action plans, Pakistan has made significant improvements to strengthen the effectiveness of this framework for combating terrorism financing.”
Following the decision, Pakistan is no longer subject to the FATF’s increased monitoring process. However, it will continue to work with the Asia/Pacific Group (APG) on money laundering to further improve its AML/CFT system.
