Washington: Despite high-level diplomacy, hiring a top lobbying firm and offering its leverage with the Taliban to the United States for reduction of violence in Afghanistan, Pakistan will not be able to escape the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list, said Mariam Solaimankhail, a member of Afghanistan parliament.
The FATF, the global money-laundering and terror-financing watchdog, is holding its plenary session from October 21 where it will decide the fate of Pakistan. The country is in grey-list since 2018.
In an opinion piece in US-based magazine ‘The Diplomat’, Solaimankhail writes: “Despite high-level diplomacy and hiring a top lobbying firm and offering its leverage with the Taliban to the U.S. for reduction of violence in Afghanistan, Pakistan will not be able to escape the grey list this time. But that is simply not enough.
Early this month, the FATF’s Asia Pacific Group (APG) on Money Laundering has kept Pakistan on “Enhanced Follow-up List” for its slow progress on the technical recommendations of the FATF to fight terror financing. Pakistan’s progress has remained unchanged — non-compliant on four counts.
According to the FATF rules, Islamabad must meet at least 13 of the 27 parameters laid down by the watchdog to come out of the “grey list.”