Reacting to Pakistan being cleared by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa has said that the country is proud of the team that executed the money laundering watchdog’s action plan.
Following the confirmation of Pakistan’s clearance by the FATF, the media wing of the military took to Twitter yesterday (Friday) to announce that the completion of the organization’s action plans was a ‘great achievement’.
Completion of FATF AML /CFT action plans by Pak is a great achievement. A monumental effort paving way 4 whitelisting. “Core cell @ GHQ which steered the national effort & civil – military team which synergised implementation of action plan made it possible, making Pak proud”COAS
— DG ISPR (@OfficialDGISPR) June 17, 2022
It added that a monumental effort had been put in to pave the way for the whitelisting of the country.
According to the tweet, the COAS said that the core cell at the General Headquarters (GHQ) had ‘steered the national effort’ and the civil-military team had ‘synergised implementations of the action plan’, which had resulted in the whitelisting, making the country proud.
On Friday June 17, the final plenary session of the FATF in Berlin, Germany, Pakistan was officially cleared from the FATF increased monitoring list, also known as the ‘grey list’.
While the country has been cleared, it has not yet officially been removed, as that action will be pending till the FATF conducts an on-site visit to determine the accuracy of the implementation of its action plan.
“The FATF will continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation and conduct an on-site visit at the earliest possible date,” said the watchdog, noting that since June 18, when Pakistan was put on the list, the country has made high-level political commitment to work with the FATF.
“In particular, Pakistan demonstrated that terror financing investigations and prosecutions target senior leaders and commanders of UN-designated terrorist groups and that there is a positive upwards trend in the number of money laundering investigations and prosecutions being pursued in Pakistan, in line with Pakistan’s risk profile. In addition, Pakistan also largely addressed its 2021 action plan ahead of the set times,” said the FATF.
