Pak forms anti-terror financing cells to exit FATF’s grey list

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s anti-corruption watchdog has established an anti-money laundering and terror financing cell to check financial crimes and illegal transfer of resources as the country struggled to exit from the FATF’s grey list.

The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) placed Pakistan on the grey list in June 2018 and asked Islamabad to implement a plan of action to curb money laundering and terror financing by the end of 2019 but the deadline was extended later on due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) took action as the country struggled to get out of the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the Dawn newspaper reported on Monday.

The move comes after the FATF retained Pakistan on its ‘grey list’ last month for failing to check money laundering, leading to terror financing, and asked Islamabad to investigate and prosecute senior leaders and commanders of UN-designated terror groups, including Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar. The global body against money laundering and terror financing also asked Pakistan to work to address its strategically important deficiencies.

Pakistan will continue to remain on the ‘increased monitoring list’, FATF president Marcus Pleyer said on June 25 after the decision had been taken at the conclusion of the FATF’s virtual plenary. ‘Increased monitoring list’ is also known as the ‘grey list’. A senior official of the anti-graft watchdog told the newspaper that the Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML&CFT) cell would coordinate with the FATF Secretariat and stakeholders concerned to curb money laundering and terror financing.