India has dismissed Pakistan’s allegation that it had sought to “politicise” deliberations at the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which concluded its plenary last week with more strictures against Pakistan.
According to sources, the government has taken a strong view of Pakistan’s accusation that India had launched a “malicious campaign” to use the FATF’s process for its own “narrow, partisan objectives” against Pakistan. Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry was, in turn, responding to India’s statement that time was running out for Islamabad to show action “Against Money Laundering and Combating Financing of Terror (AML/CFT)” by groups that pose a transnational risk.
Calling Pakistan’s statement on politicisation a “false ploy” meant to “deflect attention and evade scrutiny of [Pakistan’s] poor compliance of global standards on AML/CFT and hoodwink the global community”, the government sources pointed to Pakistan’s own attempts at trying to influence the outcome of the FATF process, which has placed the neighbour on a “greylist” of countries of concern. In June 2018, the FATF decided unanimously to put Pakistan on the greylist, and hand it a 27-point action plan meant to be implemented within 18 months (by September 2019). If it fails to fulfil its FATF commitments, it could face the “next steps” or being moved to the “blacklist”, the FATF has warned.
