ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said on Monday it hoped the United Kingdom would review its decision to add Pakistan to a list of 21 countries that were at ‘high-risk’ over terror funding and money laundering concerns.
The list replicates countries listed by the global watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), for being high risk or under increased monitoring.
Since 2018, Pakistan has been on FATF’s “grey list” of countries with inadequate controls over terrorism financing, which has made foreign firms more cautious about investing in Pakistan.
In a statement issued from Islamabad, Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said Pakistan hoped the "UK would review its regulations in light of facts on ground and avoid politically motivated and misplaced measures."
FATF has said Pakistan had now met over 21 targets out of 27 set for it in 2018 but still needs to demonstrate that law enforcement agencies are identifying and investigating the widest range of terrorism financing activity.
The watchdog also asked Islamabad to demonstrate that terrorism financing probes resulted in effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions.
Pakistan has lately been pushing through tougher legislation and other measures to ward off blacklisting by the FATF.
In recent months, it says its law enforcement agencies have cracked down on militant groups - especially Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and its welfare arms, Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and Falah-e-Insanyat - and on their sources of income, arresting, trying and convicting several of their members and leaders.
Pakistan denies long-standing accusations that it has nurtured and supported militant groups for use as proxies to project power in the region, particularly towards its arch-rival India and in Afghanistan.