South Asia

Blacklist: FATF to decide on Pakistan today

Blacklist: FATF to decide on Pakistan today

Bangladesh Live News | @banglalivenews | 18 Oct 2019, 06:31 am
Paris: The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) might take the final decision on whether to blacklist Pakistan or to keep it on its grey list on Friday, media reports said.

Putting the country in the 'Dark Grey List' means, FATF is issuing a last warning to it to improve the situation.

 

Ahead of its plenary session, FATF had said in a statement that the areas of discussion will include: "Progress by Iran, Pakistan and other countries that present a risk to the financial system."

 

According to News 18 report, on Friday, time runs out for the deadline and Pakistan’s performance will be reviewed by the 39 member states of the FATF, which includes both India and the United States. Yet, despite reports that Pakistan has not been fully compliant on most parameters, Pakistan may avoid being in the Black List after all.

 

Former Indian Diplomat Vishnu Prakash told the news channel, “Pakistan has an all-weather ally, China, as the chair of the FATF. I think, with Chinese aid, they will be able to avoid the blacklisting.”

 

Explaining the procedure further, Prakash said, “All Pakistan needs to do is make sure that it has three countries on its side. China, Malaysia and Turkey are already on its side and it’s also hoping that Saudi Arabia will block the bid to blacklist Pakistan.”

 

The FATF plenary session is currently going on in Paris.

 

Dissatisfied with Pakistan's efforts in preventing terror financing, the FATF had earlier placed the Asian nation on its grey list, following a plenary meeting in Paris.