With FATF giving lifeline until October; India expects Pakistan to take credible action against terror
New Delhi, June 22: More trouble coming in for Pakistan after Financial Action Task Force (FATF) kept the neighbouring country in the grey list after failing to meet the deadlines. Expressing its stand, India on Saturday said that it expects Pakistan to take "credible, verifiable, irreversible and sustainable measures" on the "global concerns" related to "terrorism and terrorist financing" emanating from any territory under its control.
Further adding to this, India also said that Pakistan should take "all necessary steps to effectively implement the FATF Action Plan fully within the remaining time frame, by October 2019". India has acted strongly against terrorism and this is not the first time India has asked Pakistan to take strong steps to dismantle terror infrastructure. India and Afghanistan have both been asking Pakistan to take measures on terror groups on its territory for years now.
After being grey-listed in June 2018, Pakistan had made high-level political commitments to address its counter-terrorist financing-related deficiencies which basically means to act on the financing of terrorism. FATF on Friday strongly urged "Pakistan to swiftly complete its action plan by October 2019", warning, if Islamabad doesn't comply, "FATF will decide the next step at that time for insufficient progress" which mean a possible blacklisting. Being on the grey-list impacts the Pakistani economy which loses $10 billion annually.
The international terror financing (TF) watchdog also asked Islamabad to take steps to "address its strategic counter-terrorist financing-related deficiencies". It further noticed that the country does not “demonstrate a proper understanding of Pakistan's transnational TF risk.”
In a statement issued after the end of the week-long plenary of FATF in Orlando, Florida, the FAFT strongly urged "Pakistan to swiftly complete its action plan by October 2019 when the last set of action plan items are set to expire." It further warned, if Pakistan doesn't comply by Oct 2019, "FATF will decide the next step at that time for insufficient progress" which could refer to a possible blacklisting.
FATF asked Pakistan to work on implementing its 10-point action plan to address its strategic deficiencies which includes "demonstrating its proper understanding of the terror financing risks posed by the terrorist groups" and "demonstrating that facilities and services owned or controlled by a designated person are deprived of their resources and the usage of the resources.
The FATF in its February meet had come hard on Pakistan saying it has not demonstrated a proper understanding of the Terror Financing risks posed by "Da’esh, AQ, JuD, FiF, LeT, JeM, HQN, and persons affiliated with the Taliban. "
In order to take proper reasonable action against terror funding mounting in the country, FATF listed 27 points to adhere eliminating terror activities. But the neighbouring country failed to fulfil 25 out of 27 points, and in the past Pakistan has failed to meet deadlines two times; January 2019 and May 2019.