Money laundering forum: Pakistan to protest UN task force’s hostility

Meeting to determine whether country will be taken off global blacklist

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan plans to take up the issue of what it feels is an increasingly, and unnecessarily, hostile attitude of the United Nations Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in the upcoming plenary meeting of the global body in Paris. The country suspects Indian manoeuvring to keep Islamabad globally blacklisted on account of deficiencies in Pakistan’s anti-money laundering regimes relative to global standards set by the FATF.

The plenary meeting of the inter-governmental body will begin from February 22 in Paris, where the government would raise the issue of what they believe are changing goalposts by the FATF, said a finance ministry official after a meeting of National Executive Committee (NEC) on Anti-Money Laundering (AML).

The NEC meeting was called days before the crucial February 22 meeting where the Regional Review Group of the FATF will share the findings of its inspection report on Pakistan. The outcomes of the report will determine whether the FATF removes Islamabad from the list of countries whose AML and Terrorism Financing regimes are considered deficient.

The FATF – an intergovernmental body – monitors the progress of its members in implementing necessary measures, reviews money laundering and terrorist financing techniques and counter-measures, and promotes the adoption and implementation of appropriate measures globally.

The government claims it has fulfilled all the requirements of the FATF and that the Regional Review Group also expressed satisfaction over actions taken by the government during its assessment visit that ended in December, according to an official handout.

A finance ministry official told The Express Tribune that the government’s stance in the upcoming plenary will be that the AML and the terrorism financing laws were dynamic in nature and the country stood ready to incorporate all changes required by the FATF in future as well. However, Pakistan suspects strong Indian influence over the FATF and was no longer ready to take dictation at the behest of India, said the official.

The director general of the Financial Monitoring Unit at the finance ministry gave a detailed presentation on the status of the National Risk Assessment and National AML/CFT strategy to the NEC. He also briefed the NEC on the preparation for FATF plenary session where implementation on the National Action Plan by Pakistan would come into focus.

The NEC is chaired by the finance minister, with the foreign minister, the law minister, the interior minister, the governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, the chairman of the Securities and Exchanges Commission of Pakistan, the chairman of the National Accountability Bureau and the director general of the FMU being its other members.

The government has finalised a plan they believe will choke funding for terrorists and terrorist organisations. A sub-committee of National Action Plan has also recommended strengthening specific provisions of Anti-Terrorism Act relating to terrorist financing through capacity building, strict enforcement and frequent use of proscription. The government has also proposed to bring tax crimes within the scope of the AML law.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 14^th, 2015.