Move to place Pakistan on global terrorist financial list designed to hamper its economic progress: Senate told

ISLAMABAD, Feb 15 (APP):Minister of State for Finance Rana Muhammad Afzal Thursday apprised the Senate that the move to place Pakistan on a global terrorist financing list was a politically motivated one, which was designed to hamper its economic progress.
Pakistan, he said, had taken extraordinary measures to stop anti-money laundering and curb terror financing as compared to other countries.
He was responding to a point of public importance raised by Senator Farhatullah Babar regarding a motion to place Pakistan on a global terrorist financing list put forward by the United States and the United Kingdom, and co-sponsored by France and Germany, ahead of a meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to be held in Paris on terrorist financing and its implications.
The minister said the initiation of the action without waiting for completion of Pakistan’s Mutual Evaluation was designed to manipulate the FATF’s process. “This move is politically motivated and designed to hamper Pakistan’s economic progress,” he said.
He said in order to counter the US and UK’s politically motivated move, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had adopted a proactive approach, besides taking special measures.
He said special envoys of the prime minister had been sent to FATF member states to seek support for Pakistan’s position. The Interior Minister visited the US, the UK, Norway, and Ireland while Advisor to the Prime Minister on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs was currently on a visit to the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria and Germany.
”The Chairperson BISP is undertaking a visit to South Korea and Japan and the Minister for Power has also visited Malaysia,” he said, adding the Foreign Secretary visited France and Italy in order to seek diplomatic support of those countries. The Foreign Secretary also visited China earlier this month for the same reason, he said.
Moreover, the Special Secretary (UN&EC) visited Moscow at the start of the month, he added.
Rana Afzal said the Foreign Minister held meetings in Islamabad with the ambassadors of countries, including the US, the UK, Germany and France, which had nominated Pakistan for the “grey list”. “We expressed our deep disappointment at the politicization of the FATF forum and pressed upon these nominating countries to withdraw their proposal in the wake of recent enforcement actions undertaken by the government of Pakistan to address the “residual concerns” related to implementation of 1267 Sanctions measures against LeT, JuD, FiF,” he said.
He said separately, the Special Secretary (UN & EC) briefed all the resident embassies of the FATF member countries in Pakistan with a view to seek their support against the clear politicization of the FATF forum.
The embassies were also apprised about the recent enforcement actions and takeover of the moveable / immovable assets of the JuD/FiF. as well as the amendment introduced in Anti-Terrorism Act 1997, he said.
He said Pakistani ambassadors in all FATF member countries were also continuously in touch with relevant host authorities for lobby efforts.
The minister said it would be a dangerous move and it would be difficult to get funds for development projects if the country were placed in the gray list.
He said FATF was an inter-government body established in1989 at the initiative of G7 countries. Its objectives were to set standards and promote effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system, he said.
He said through ICRG (International Cooperation Review Group) process, FATF monitored implementation of the standards by its members or members of its various regional bodies. FATF could take punitive measures against any country for non compliance by issuing a public statement (black grey list).
“Pakistan is not a member of FATF, however, it is a member of its regional body i.e., Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG). Every country goes through a peer based evaluation process called Mutual Evaluation (ME) for monitoring of compliance with FATF standards,” he added.
Pakistan’s ME, he said, was conducted in 2009 by the APG and based on that evaluation identified “strategic deficiencies” in Pakistan’s AML/CTF regime. In February 2012, Pakistan was listed in FATF’s “grey list,” he added.
He said to overcome those deficiencies, he said, Pakistan agreed to implement an action plan in 2010. As a consequence, a series of new rules and guidelines were introduced by various authorities of Pakistan and those actions include but not limited to:
i. Ministry of Foreign Affairs regularly issues SROs to reflect changes in the UNSC sanctions regime and to suggest measures that need to be taken for implementation of Pakistan’s obligations under this sanctions regime.
ii. NACTA established a National Task Force on combating financing for terrorism.
iii. State Bank of Pakistan introduced new rules and guidelines on CTF/AML.
iv. Stand alone legislation on Money Laundering was also enacted by the Parliament.
v. Operationally independent and administrative Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU) was established under the AML law with the sole mandate of receiving, analysing and disseminating Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs) and Currency Transaction Reports.
The minister said in 2015, after strenuous efforts, Pakistan exited the “grey list’ and was referred to APG for continued monitoring due to residuary concerns regarding implementation of UNSCR 1267 sanction on some entities, i.e, Lashkar-e-Tayibah, JuD, and FIF. Pakistan had been entities continuously reporting to APG on those “residual concerns”.
He said on January 6, Pakistan shared its latest report with APG, which reflected a wide range of enforcement actions taken by it. The report also included a number of additional actions taken by Pakistan to implement UNSC 1267 sanctions on JuD and FIF, he added.
In recent months, he said, Pakistan had also taken more actions while the APG was analyzing its recent report.
Rana Afzal said on January 20, the US and UK jointly submitted a letter to the FATF nominating Pakistan for the list. France and Germany subsequently joined that nomination.
Pakistan, he said, had serious concerns over and objections to the introduction of that new procedure, which was unprecedented and in clear violation of the established rules practices of FATF.
“Since 2015, time and again the goal posts have been shifted for reporting by Pakistan. This has made it into a never-ending monitoring process. The objective of raising these new issues seems to be to suddenly raise an alarm on the overall integrity of Pakistan’s AML/CFT framework,” he added.