A Pakistani delegation led by Revenue Minister Hammad Azhar will have reached Paris by the time this edition of this newspaper hits the newsstands.
A Pakistani delegation led by Revenue Minister Hammad Azhar will have reached Paris by the time this edition of this newspaper hits the newsstands.
The delegation would represent Pakistan at the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) crucial meeting, which would decide whether to remove Pakistan from its grey list of countries not doing enough to curb money laundering and terror financing, or retain it or in a worst case scenario put it on its notorious blacklist which could have serious consequences for the country’s economy.
Though Pakistan has previously remained on the FATF grey list but this time around India has been lobbying intensely to push Pakistan towards the blacklist or at least to keep it on the grey.
It has launched a vilification campaign, with the tacit support of the United States, at the FATF and other international forums with regard to the activities of the militant groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, already banned by Pakistan.
Prime Minister Imran Khan has, in his interviews with the international media in recent weeks, made references to this Indian lobbying, maintaining that New Delhi wants to make Pakistan financial bankrupt.
New Delhi has made attempts to link the terror attacks in held Kashmir to aforementioned groups propagating they are based in Pakistan and draw support from the Pakistani territory.
It is this bogey of terrorism India used as an excuse to illegally annex Jammu and Kashmir through a presidential order on August 5 and that’s why the world community has generally overlooked this flagrant breach of the UN Security Council resolutions calling for a plebiscite to decide the fate of the disputed and divided Himalayan region.
The FATF is to take up Pakistan’s case for consideration today and tomorrow where the revenue minister Hammad Azhar would present Pakistan’s compliance report.
The report is compiled by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan and some of its excerpts were leaked to the national media beforehand.
According to the excerpts, Pakistan would argue that it had made substantial progress towards curbing money laundering and terror financing in the light of the guidelines developed by it as over 200 Suspicious Transactions Reports have been generated by the country’s financial institutions in just last one year as compared to only eight generated in eight years.
The commission has also developed anti-money laundering and anti-terror financing regulations in the light of the 40 recommendations made by the FATF to Pakistan to curb these practices.
The Asia Pacific Group of the FATF on money laundering recently published its report titled “Mutual Evaluation Report 2019” that maintained Pakistan partially met 36 of the 40 recommendations.
The Paris meeting would take Pakistani compliance report as well as Asia Pacific Group report into consideration as well as listen to the view point of the Pakistani delegation as well as other delegates before taking any decision.
The Paris forum is all expected to be a scene of an intense war of nerves between Pakistani and Indian diplomats who would lobby hard to muster support for their position at the meeting.
The revenue minister has recently sounded upbeat about the success of Pakistan and has expressed confidence Pakistan has been successful in convincing its interlocutors about its efforts to curb these practices.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi echoed same sentiments saying Pakistan has successfully lobbied to counter the India’s anti-Pakistan campaign.
Pakistan was put on the grey list in June 2018 when at the last moment the United States succeeded in taking Gulf countries crucial support away from Pakistan.
Pakistani officials are confident they have rallied enough diplomatic support this time around to at least block Indian attempts to get Pakistan blacklisted.
Though most of the decisions taken on such forums are based on politics rather than merit, Pakistan still needs to take robust action on its own to curb activities of militant groups for its own sake.
The 9/11 has changed the world narrative regarding terrorism altogether and Pakistan needs to get rid of the terror groups formed with the help of the West to counter erstwhile Soviet Union as early as possible.
The international community is tightening noose around terror-related financial activities like money laundering and Pakistan needs to bring its law in sync with the international standards to avoid any negative impact on its economy.
A country which has a fragile economy can ill-afford negative repercussions of any drastic action by the world forums in this regard.
Pakistan has rendered enormous sacrifices to neutralise the security and existential threats posed by the terror groups over the past nearly two decades. It needs to reap the benefits of improved security situation by focusing its attention on improving its economy which is possible only if it integrates it fully with the international economy by complying with international standards.
India’s negative campaigning can only be thwarted if the country projects itself as a responsible member of the international comity of nations.
We face an uphill task of reviving our ailing economy that requires improvement in our international image.
Pakistan no longer makes international headlines for bomb blasts and violence. It now needs to go a step further to rein in militant groups to project itself as a safe and secure country of the world which neither allows its territory to be used for terrorism against any country nor does it endanger its own security.
It should bolster its diplomatic clout to convince the world to intervene to resolve the regional conflicts particularly Kashmir that poses grave threat to peace in the region and beyond.
The unresolved Kashmir issue which has been further complicated by the August 5 action of the Narendra Modi government, the continuing Afghan conflict and the looming danger of a war in the Persian Gulf are a big test for Pakistani diplomacy.
A robust diplomatic initiative to avert any conflict and a more focused attention on economy are the best available options for Pakistan to progress.
The writer is a senior journalist based in Islamabad
