ISLAMABAD: The mission of the Asia-Pacific Group (APG), a regional affiliate of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), has started meeting with officials of different departments to review Pakistan’s progress in anti-money laundering and counter financing of terrorism.
In its second visit since last year, the mission would assess Pakistan’s progress on global standards against monetary crimes. A positive report by APG c could lead Pakistan out of grey list by FATF-a larger inter-governmental body.
Talks between Pakistan and the nine-member APG delegation led by Executive Secretary Garden Hook will be held for three days until Thursday.
The visiting delegation, which arrived in the federal capital on Monday, comprises Ian Collins of New Scotland Yard, James Prussing of Department of the Treasury United States, Ashraf Abdulla of Financial Intelligence Unit Maldives, Boby Wahyu Hernawan of Indonesia’s Ministry of Finance, Gong Jingyan of People’s Bank of China; Mustafa Necmeddin of Turkey’s Ministry of Justice, Deputy Director Muhammad Al-Rashdan and Deputy Director Shannon Rutherford.
The APG assessment team would meet officials from the State Bank of Pakistan, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, Election Commission of Pakistan, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Interior, National Counter Terrorism Authority, law enforcement agencies and counter terrorism departments.
The FATF had placed Pakistan on a money laundering “grey list” early in 2018 but given it time to take action against further downgrade. In its last review in February FATF maintained Pakistan’s status in the grey list and give timeline of May this year to take further administrative and legal actions to curb money laundering and financial transactions of militant groups.
AGP mission thoroughly reviews progress of member country countries based on standards fixed by FATF and comes up with its report. Its report is given huge weightage in FATF review meetings. Mission had visited Pakistan in October last year and made public its report the next month.
Pakistan was put on grey list in February last year. However, it was made effective in June last year before general elections, when a caretaker government was in place. September 2019 review by FATF will be crucial for Pakistan. In case the country goes in black-list, it will have huge ramifications for Pakistan. Only two countries, North Korea and Iran are in black-list.
