PAKISTAN ON GREY LIST

• Recently, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) retained Pakistan in the ‘greylist’ or ‘increased monitoring list’.
• The FATF also announced the ‘greylisting’ of Jordan, Mali and Turkey.
• Botswana and Mauritius had been taken out of the grey list.

Important points:

• Pakistan is retained for failing to effectively implement the global FATF standards and over its lack of progress on investigation and prosecution of senior leaders and commanders of UN-designated terror groups.
• Pakistan will remain on the grey list till it addresses all items on the original action plan agreed to in June 2018 as well as all items on a parallel action plan handed out by the FATF’s regional partner – the Asia Pacific Group (APG) – in 2019.
• The Pakistan government has two concurrent action plans, with a total of 34 action plan items. It has largely addressed 30 of the items.
• Pakistan has made significant progress and it has largely addressed 26 out of 27 items on the action plan it first committed to in June 2018. The item on financial terrorism still needed to be addressed.
• The 2019 action plan largely focussed on money laundering deficiencies.
• The FATF had advised that Pakistan should continue to work to address its six strategically important deficiencies, which included enhancing international cooperation by amending the money-laundering law and demonstrating that assistance was being sought from foreign countries in implementing the UNSCR 1373 designations.
• The UNSC Resolution 1373 was adopted on 28th September 2001. It declares international terrorism a threat to international peace and security and imposes binding obligations on all UN member states.

SOURCE: THE HINDU,THE ECONOMIC TIMES,MINT