KARACHI: Pakistan must take ‘serious’ action to have its name removed from the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), financial and security experts told Arab News on Friday. The experts stressed that implementing all of the recommendations of the FATF’s Asia Pacific Group (APG) is the best way for the country to achieve that goal.
An APG delegation reviewed the measures taken by Islamabad to prevent money laundering and the financing of terror groups during its recent visit to the country. Its members were particularly concerned about the flow of funds to proscribed militant entities operating in the region.
“During the visit, the APG team asked Pakistan to enact appropriate laws, enabling local officials to act upon requests from foreign countries to freeze illegal assets and make terrorism financing and money laundering extraditable offenses,” Dr. Ikram-ul-Haq, a senior economist, told Arab News.
He added: “The team was not satisfied with the existing laws on asset freezing and mutual assistance procedures. It also expressed serious reservations about the capabilities of various institutions entrusted with the task of countering the twin menace of money laundering and terrorism financing.”
Former chief of the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA), Khawaja Khalid Farooq, stressed the need to address the weaknesses in Pakistan’s investigation and prosecution of terror funding and money laundering.
“Given the perception of Pakistan in the international community, it will not be easy for us to get off the grey list. We need to improve our financial system and diplomacy to avoid further degradation,” he told Arab News.
The APG team also called for improvements in the operations of NACTA and the Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU).
Pakistani authorities briefed the visiting team about the measures taken to counter money laundering, including the claim that seven suspicious transactions worth PKR 2 billion had been intercepted by the counter terrorism wing of the country’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), according to sources.
FATF officials were informed that, under the action plan, 1,111 cases of money laundering had been registered in the last three years, in connection to which 1,466 people had been arrested, with 542 convictions.
The team — which consisted of officials from the United States, Turkey, China and the United Kingdom — will submit its report to the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force.
“The APG delegation was basically an observatory mission and it was briefed by all relevant departments about Pakistan’s efforts to curb money laundering and terrorism financing,” Saeed Javed, the Ministry of Finance’s media director general, told Arab News.
“Representatives of the APG and Pakistan will hold a second meeting in mid-September to examine progress on the action plan,” he continued, adding that that visit is particularly significant as it comes at a time when Pakistan is expected to approach the International Monetary Fund (IMF) about a bailout package.
“Although Pakistan is not a member of FATF, global lenders, including the IMF and World Bank, attend meetings as observers and follow recommendations. Pakistan may be refused a loan or only be able to get one from the IMF at much higher rates,” Dr. Ayub Mehar, Research Economist at the Asian Development Bank Institute, told Arab News.
Dr. Athar Ahmed, a senior economist, said: “Pakistan will need at least three votes in the 37-member FATF to be removed from the grey list. The new government will have to improve diplomacy, along with its efforts to curb money laundering and terrorism financing.”
“Pakistan is moving in the right direction to curb money laundering and funding to terror outfits,” said Khurram Schehzad, senior financial analyst and chief commercial officer at JS Global Capital. “Pakistan has improved its regulatory framework during the last couple of years. The caretakers took overnight measures to implement the National Action Plan and the new government also seems serious about this issue.”
Schezad sounded optimistic that Pakistan would soon be removed from the agency’s grey list, saying “it is just a matter of time.”
Pakistan was placed on the FATF’s list of “jurisdictions with strategic deficiencies” — known as the ‘grey list’ — in June for its systematic failure to adequately counter money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
It is the third time Pakistan has featured on the list, having previously been included in 2008 and 2012.
Pakistan must take ‘serious’ action to be removed from FATF’s grey list, say economic experts
Pakistan must take ‘serious’ action to be removed from FATF’s grey list, say economic experts
- The IMF may refuse Pakistan a loan or apply much higher rates if the country remains on the list
- But some experts believe Pakistan is moving in the right direction to curb money laundering and the financing of terrorism
Pakistan remembers Benazir Bhutto, first woman PM in Muslim world, on death anniversary
- Bhutto was daughter of ex-PM Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who was hanged during reign of former military ruler Gen. Zia-ul-Haq
- Year before assassination in 2007, Bhutto signed landmark deal with rival Nawaz Sharif to prevent army interventions
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and other Pakistani leaders on Saturday paid tribute to Benazir Bhutto, the first woman prime minister in the Muslim world who was assassinated 18 years ago in a gun and bomb attack after a rally in the city of Rawalpindi.
Born on Jun. 21, 1953, Bhutto was elected premier for the first time in 1988 at the age of 35. She was deposed in 1990, re-elected in 1993, and ousted again in 1996, amid allegations of corruption and mismanagement which she denied as being politically motivated.
Bhutto only entered politics after her father was hanged in 1979 during military ruler Gen. Zia-ul-Haq’s reign. Throughout her political career, she had a complex and often adversarial relationship with the now ruling Sharif family, but despite the differences signed a ‘Charter of Democracy’ in 2006 with three-time former PM Nawaz Sharif, pledging to strengthen democratic institutions and prevent military interventions in Pakistan in the future.
She was assassinated a year and a half later.
“Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto took exemplary steps to strengthen the role of women, protect the rights of minorities, and make Pakistan a peaceful, progressive, and democratic state,” PM Shehbaz Sharif, younger brother of ex-PM Nawaz Sharif, said in a statement on Saturday.
“Her sacrifices and services are a beacon of light for the nation.”
President Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto’s widower, said Bhutto believed in an inclusive Pakistan, rejected sectarianism, bigotry and intolerance, and consistently spoke for the protection of minorities.
“Her vision was of a federation where citizens of all faiths could live with dignity and equal rights,” he said. “For the youth of Pakistan, her life offers a clear lesson: speak up for justice, organize peacefully and do not surrender hope in the face of adversity.”
Powerful families like the Bhuttos and the Sharifs of Pakistan to the Gandhis of India and the Bandaranaike family of Sri Lanka have long dominated politics in this diverse region since independence from British colonial rule. But none have escaped tragedy at the hands of rebels, militants or ambitious military leaders.
It was Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Bhutto’s father, who founded the troubled Bhutto dynasty, becoming the country’s first popularly elected prime minister before being toppled by the army in 1977 and later hanged. Both his sons died in mysterious circumstances.
Before her assassination on Dec. 27, 2007, Bhutto survived another suicide attack on her motorcade that killed nearly 150 people as she returned to Pakistan after eight years in exile in October 2007.
Bhutto’s Oxford-educated son, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, now leads her Pakistan Peoples Party, founded by her father, and was foreign minister in the last administration of PM Shehbaz Sharif.
Aseefa Bhutto Zardari, Bhutto’s daughter who is currently the first lady of Pakistan, said her mother lived with courage and led with compassion in life.
“Her strength lives on in every voice that refuses injustice,” she said on X.
Pakistan has been ruled by military regimes for almost half its history since independence from Britain in 1947. Both former premiers Imran Khan and the elder Sharif, Nawaz, have alleged that they were ousted by the military after they fell out with the generals. The army says it does not interfere in politics.
