Pakistan likely to approach FATF president against India

The Foreign Office on Monday said the government was considering approaching the president of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for an appropriate action against the government of India after its External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar confessed to politicising the global forum.

“Following the recent confession by the Indian government, India’s credentials for assessing Pakistan in FATF as co-chair of the Joint Group or for that matter any other country are subject to questions, which we urge FATF to look into,” the Foreign Office Spokesperson Zahid Hafiz Chaudhri said.

Jaishankar confessed on Sunday that the Narendra Modi government ensured that Pakistan remained on the FATF grey list. “Due to us, Pakistan is under the lens of FATF and it was kept in the grey list,” Indian news agency ANI quoted Jaishankar as saying.

Response to the media queries Chaudhri said that Jaishankar’s statement was just a “further corroboration of its [India’s] continued efforts to use an important technical forum for its narrow political designs” against Pakistan.

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“The Indian statement not only exposes its true colours, but also vindicates Pakistan’s longstanding stance on India’s negative role in FATF,” he said, adding: “Pakistan has always been highlighting to the international community the politicisation of FATF and undermining of its processes by India.”

While Pakistan had been sincerely and constructively engaged with FATF during the implementation of the action plan, the spokesperson said, “India left no stone unturned in casting doubts on Pakistan’s progress through disgraceful means”.

“Pakistan has been exposing India’s duplicitous role to the international community in the past and it will also bring this recent confession by India to the notice of FATF and broader international community,” he added.

The spokesperson said that Pakistan’s immense progress in anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing (CTF) domains, demonstrated through concrete, tangible and verifiable actions had been openly acknowledged by FATF.

“We are resolved to sustain this momentum and trajectory with the support and cooperation of our international partners. India’s delusions of putting pressure on Pakistan have always remained unfulfilled and would never see the light of day,” he said.

The spokesperson said that despite distractions, including politicisation of FATF processes by certain jurisdictions, Pakistan reaffirmed its commitment to bring its AML/CFT systems to international standards for its own good and also to fulfil its international obligations and commitments