Islamabad: Pakistan has formally responded to the FATF's decision to remove it from its grey list, saying the country's engagement with the global watchdog has led to strategic improvements in its laws and procedures and made its domestic anti-terror financing and money laundering regime more resilient. The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global watchdog on terror financing and money laundering, on Friday removed Pakistan from a list of countries under increased monitoring, also known as the grey list.
Responding to the development, the Foreign Office (FO) said last night that the FATF decided by consensus that Pakistan has completed all substantial, technical and procedural requirements of both the 2018 and 2021 action plans and as a result, Pakistan has been taken off the list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring, with immediate effect. Pakistan has made enormous progress in the Anti Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) domain over the course of fulfilling requirements of both action plans, it said.
Despite many challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, Pakistan continued the reform trajectory and sustained the high-level political commitment of aligning its domestic AML/CFT regime with international best practices. The FO said that achieving FATF targets was a whole-of-nation endeavor, as multiple ministries, departments and agencies - both at the federal and provincial levels - contributed to achieving this national objective. The engagement with the FATF has led to strategic improvements in Pakistan's laws and procedures, making its domestic AML/CFT regime more resilient to cope with current and future challenges, it said.