US likely to back Pakistan on FATF

ISLAMABAD: The United States is likely to throw its weight behind Pakistan at the forthcoming plenary of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in Paris and save it at least from being placed in the “black list”, if not removed from the “grey-list”, international media reported.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is holding its plenary in Paris from February 16 to 21, when it is likely to review the progress made by Pakistan in plugging the loopholes in its legislative and administrative mechanism to check the flow of funds to terrorist organisations.

Pakistan is lobbying hard with the United States and other western nations to ensure a favourable outcome of the FATF scrutiny. China, Turkey and Malaysia are also likely to support it at the plenary of the intergovernmental organization.

Alice Wells, acting US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, said on Thursday that the conviction of Hafiz Saeed by a court was “an important step forward” by Pakistan – “both toward holding (the) LeT (Lashkar-e-Tayyiba) accountable for its crimes” and for meeting the “international commitments” of Khan government in Islamabad to “combat terrorist financing”.

The US had in 2018 supported the move within the FATF to put Pakistan in the “grey list” – officially a list of “jurisdictions with strategic deficiencies in its legal regime to check money laundering and terrorist financing”. Sources in a world capital said that Trump Administration had changed its approach to Pakistan because it had to rely on Imran Khan’s government to clinch the peace-deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan. The Government of Pakistan in June 2018 made a commitment to work with the FATF to plug the loopholes.