FATF: Rehman calls for approaching ICJ over India’s admission

Senator Rehman Malik on Tuesday urged the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to investigate Indian influence on its evaluation process in view of India’s admission that the Modi-led government ensured that Pakistan remained on the FATF grey list.

He expressed grave concerns over the global body’s “discriminatory” conduct in evaluating financial terrorism, lamenting that Pakistan was being victimised over trivial conditions while India could go off scot-free.

He pointed out that it seemed that India enjoyed immunity from violating rules in stark contrast to what was being done to Pakistan.

Rehman Malik expressed that despite clear evidence of involvement in terror financing, money laundering, and now even in a heinous crime of nuclear proliferation, India was being spared and no legal action was being initiated against it.

In his presser, he questioned President FATF that why FATF had not investigated the terror financing by India to Daesh?

On Sunday, India had finally admitted that the Narendra Modi government had “ensured” that Pakistan remained on the grey list of the FATF, stirring a sense of distrust and deepening earlier apprehensions that Pakistan was being subjected to unjust treatment.

“Due to us, Pakistan is under the lens of FATF and it was kept in the grey list,” Indian news agency ANI quoted Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar as saying while addressing a virtual training programme on the foreign policy for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders.

“We have been successful in pressuring Pakistan and the fact that its behaviour has changed is because of pressure put by India by various measures,” he added.

Addressing a news conference on Tuesday, the former interior minister urged the incumbent government to approach the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to seek adjudication over the unfair treatment being meted out to Pakistan, particularly after India admitted it held some kind of “sway” over the watchdog’s dealing with Pakistan.

Besides, United Nations should also be asked to probe into the serious claims made by the Indian minister, he suggested.

Commenting on the emerging security situation in the region and recent wave of terrorism, Rehman said he had already warned that there were evident traces of ISIS’ activities in the country. He questioned the government’s implementation of the National Action Plan.

“Where is Pakistan's action plan? There are obvious signatures of India in the recent bomb blast,” he remarked and added that he hoped that the security of Chinese nationals in the country would be bolstered.

He reminded that India had always manoeuvred to sabotage China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and warned that it may try to “do something big” in the near future to put the country’s security and CPEC in jeopardy.

“Narendra Modi should stop playing dirty tricks and exploiting the weak porous borders,” the senator said, alleging that India was training ISIS militants in the region.