Malik urges FATF to remove Pakistan from ‘grey list’

ISLAMABAD: Former Interior Minister and Senate Standing Committee on Interior Chairman Abdul Rehman Malik Thursday wrote a letter to Financial Action Task Force President Dr Marcus Pleyer, pleading him to remove Pakistan from FATF’s grey list and take action against India for money laundering and terror financing.

Senator Abdul Rehman Malik made the letter public while addressing a press conference and said it was a discriminatory treatment with Pakistan as compared to India for not proceeding against it despite evidence. “There is irrefutable evidence against India's involvement in money laundering and terror financing but unlike Pakistan, the FATF chose not to take action against it,” he said.

He said pressure was being built on Pakistan through the FATF and it was linked with the Afghan issue. He said Pakistan’s efforts for peace in Afghanistan were more than anyone and Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa had played a vital role in peace in Afghanistan. He requested to the FTAF to give him a chance to present the evidence against India. “I am always ready to fight the case on every forum as for me Pakistan’s interest are supreme,” he said. Rehman Malik said the government should have convened a joint session of the Parliament on the FATF. “I will also move the resolution on the FATF in the upcoming session senate session,” he said.

In his letter Senator A. Rehman Malik writes that he would like to refer to his earlier letters wherein it was requested to remove the name of Pakistan from FATF's grey list and take action against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for protecting international fugitives involved in biggest ever credit fraud and money laundering. He stated that the people of Pakistan were justified to pose few questions to the FATF as to why Pakistan was being dealt differently from India.