ABU DHABI: Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin expressed serious doubts over the independence of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) after the global financial crime watchdog announced to retain Pakistan on a list of jurisdictions subject to increased monitoring, known as its “grey list”.
“The FATF decision is politically motivated and it was taken under the influence of some powerful nations to pressurise Pakistan over its strategic policy decisions,” Tarin, who is in Dubai on a tour, told Khaleej Times.
“We have completed 26 conditions out of 27 of the action plan […],” he said, insisting the agency has no merit to retain Islamabad’s status as it has made significant progress to meet its “tough conditions”.
The minister also expressed confidence that Pakistan will exit the grey list this year.
This decision was made after the conclusion of the four-day plenary meeting from March 1-4.
In 2018, FATF returned Pakistan to the grey list of nations with a high risk of money laundering and terrorism financing but which have formally committed to working with the task force to make changes.
In addition to further FATF scrutiny, countries on that list risk reputational damage, ratings adjustments, trouble obtaining global finance and higher transaction costs, experts say.
Currently, only Iran and North Korea are blacklisted, a designation that severely restricts a nation’s international borrowing capabilities. Pakistan is trying to avoid that designation but also get off the grey list.
The country’s leadership and independent observers have come to believe Pakistan’s retention in the grey list is a political decision.
In June last year, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said it needed to be looked into whether FATF was “being used for political purposes”, adding “some powers desire to keep the sword of FATF hanging over Pakistan.”
According to a Foreign Office spokesperson, who spoke at his weekly media briefing on February 25, Pakistan has “completed all technical requirements of the FATF, and it is only because of certain members of the group that the watchdog has refused to remove it from the grey list”.
In October, an Islamabad-based independent think tank, Tabadlab, estimated it has cost the economy $38 billion since Islamabad was put on the grey list.
The latest meeting took place in a hybrid format with a significant number of participants attending in person due to the gradual easing of Covid-19 restrictions in several countries.
