Pak to remain in 'grey' list of FATF till Feb 2021

(with inputs from Sidhant Sibal and agencies)

Pakistan will remain in FATF's 'grey' list till February 2021 as it has failed to fulfil six key obligations of the global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog

The virtual plenary of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), held in the last three days, concluded that Pakistan will continue in its 'grey' list.

The decision has been taken after a thorough review of Pakistan's performance in fulfilling the global commitments and standards on the fight against money laundering and terror financing.

"Pakistan remains in the increased monitoring list or the grey list," FATF president Marcus Pleyer said at a virtual press conference from Paris.

The FATF chief said Islamabad must impose sanctions and prosecute those involved in terror financing.

"Pakistan needs to do more on checking terror funding, it can't stop now," he said.

Sources said the tasks in which Pakistan failed to fulfil include failure to take action against all UN designated terrorists like Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Azhar, Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Seed and the outfit's operational commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.

Pakistan's position will be up for review in the next meeting of the FATF to be held in February next year.

Being on the grey list means, the country needs to make reforms in its financial system so that money is not used for terrorism.

Pakistan was placed on the Paris based body's grey list in June, 2018 and given an action plan to implement. It has been two years, but Islamabad has failed to implement the action plan.

India on Thursday reiterated that Islamabad had not taken any action on terror havens in the country.

Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said, "As is well known, Pakistan continues to provide safe havens to terror entities and individuals, and has also not yet taken any action against Masood Azhar, Dawood Ibrahim, Zakir-ur-Rahman Lakhvi etc."

Pakistan needed 12 votes out of 39 to exit the 'grey' list and move to the 'white' list. To avoid 'black' list, it needed support of three countries. China, Turkey and Malaysia are its consistent supporters.

Pakistan was placed on the 'grey' list by the FATF in June, 2018 and was given a plan of action to complete it by October, 2019. Since then the country continues to be in that list due to its failure to comply with the FATF mandates.

The FATF is an inter-governmental body established in 1989 to combat money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system.

The FATF currently has 39 members including two regional organisations -- the European Commission and Gulf Cooperation Council. India is a member of the FATF consultations and its Asia Pacific Group.