FATF can blacklist Pakistan anytime: Indian defence minister

NEW DELHI: International money laundering watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) can anytime blacklist Pakistan for terror financing, defence minister Rajnath Singh claimed on Tuesday.

In August, the Asia Pacific Group of the FATF had put Pakistan in a terror 'blacklist' for its failure to curb funnelling of funds to groups responsible for attacks in India, international media reported.

“International agency FATF can blacklist Pakistan for terror financing,” he said at the Defence Accounts Department day event. Paris-based FATF is an inter-governmental body that promotes effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the international financial system.

Singh observed that national security has become a multi-dimensional concept, economic, strength, food and energy security and environmental protection are its key aspects. It is prudent for an emerging economy like India to have good financial management, Singh said.

“Our neighbour is a living example of financial mismanagement,” he said. An official in the Pakistani government, however, rebuffed Indian claim saying that how come India already knew such informationt.

He said that India is lobbying with countries to put Pakistan in the blacklist of FATF, calling for a national consensus and political commitment to undertake measures to come out of the grey-list of the FATF.

He said that Pakistan has so far been meeting all the conditions and indicators show that the country is improving in controlling money laundering and terror financing. He said that many measures have been taken and a number or organisations have been banned and their properties confiscated.

He said that new scanners have been installed at the border points to check currency smuggling, and all the state organs a closely cooperating with each other to meet the targets set by FATF. He said that India would never succeed in its conspiracy against Pakistan.