ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Ministry of Finance claimed on Monday that it is well-prepared to brief the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) team about measures taken to curb terror financing through money laundering and illegal remittances.
“We are well-prepared for it at every level,” Mehrin Liaqat, spokesperson for the Ministry of Finance, told Arab News.
She said that every government department, including the Ministry of Finance and the State Bank of Pakistan, have done their best to plug loopholes in the system through amendments in certain rules and regulations.
“We are hopeful we can satisfy the visiting FATF team (about actions taken to block terror financing),” she said.
Liaqat said the nine-member team of the Asia Pacific Group — an arm of the Paris-based FATF — arrived here on Sunday to begin a 12-day “on-site inspection” of the country.
“Today, the FATF team is holding negotiations at the secretary level,” she said. “Later, they will meet the finance minister and other officials as well.”
Pakistan was placed on the FATF “gray list” in June this year during a plenary session of the global watchdog in Paris after a review of the monitoring report of the International Cooperation Review Group.
The FATF is an intergovernmental body based in Paris which battles money laundering, terrorist financing and other threats to the international financial system. It was set up in 1989.
Pakistan and the FATF negotiated a 10-point action plan to be implemented by September 2019 to get off the gray list.
In August, a FATF team visited Islamabad to identify deficiencies in Pakistan’s anti-money laundering and counter-terror financing laws and mechanisms.
The government last week announced that it had finalized amendments to relevant laws — Federal Investigation Agency Act 1974, Foreign Exchange Regulation Act 1947, Customs Act 1969, and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2010 — that would be presented to the prime minister and his cabinet for approval.
Ministry of Finance officials will inform the FATF team about the proposed amendments in the laws to plug the loopholes, and then table them in parliament for passage, Ministry of Finance officials told Arab News.
The visiting team will also be briefed about the amendments introduced recently to block terror financing in rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan and the State Bank of Pakistan.
Dr. Kaiser Bengali, a renowned economist, said that it is in Pakistan’s interest to plug loopholes in the legal system to block terror financing through money laundering and illegal remittances.
“We should not wait for anybody to ask us to fix the loopholes in our economic system,” he told Arab News.
FATF team on 12-day onsite inspection, Islamabad says ‘we are prepared’
FATF team on 12-day onsite inspection, Islamabad says ‘we are prepared’
- Nine-member FATF team is in Islamabad and holding secretary-level talks at Ministry of Finance
- Pakistan is required to implement a 10-point action plan by September 2019 to get off the FATF’s gray list
Pakistan reports first wild polio case of 2026 despite vaccination campaigns
- Four-year-old girl infected in Sindh’s Sujawal district as virus persists in high-risk areas
- Pakistan conducted last nationwide campaign in January, vaccinating over 45 million children
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan reported its first wild poliovirus case of the year, health authorities said on Thursday, underscoring the persistence of the disease in high-risk areas despite ongoing vaccination campaigns.
The latest infection was confirmed in a four-year-old girl in Sujawal district of the southern Sindh province, according to the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health in Islamabad.
Polio is a highly contagious viral disease that can cause permanent paralysis, mainly in children under the age of five. Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world where the disease remains endemic.
“The case was reported through the polio surveillance network and confirmed by the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health, Islamabad,” the statement said.
“The Polio Eradication Initiative is already analyzing the best response to tackle and prevent further transmission.”
In 2026, Pakistan conducted a nationwide polio campaign in January that vaccinated more than 45 million children, while the next national campaign is planned for April.
Since 1994, Pakistan has cut polio cases by 99.8 percent through vaccination efforts, reducing infections from an estimated 20,000 in the early 1990s to 31 in 2025.
Pakistan reported 31 polio cases in 2025. Southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa accounted for more than half of the country’s polio cases in 2025, with 17 of the 31 infections reported from the region.
According to health authorities, 74 cases were reported in 2024.
More than 200 polio workers and police officers assigned to protect polio teams have been killed in Pakistan since the 1990s, according to health and security officials.
Militants often falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are part of a Western plot to sterilize Muslim children.
The vaccination campaigns are also undermined by parental refusals in remote regions.
