Paris - The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the anti-terror global watchdog, on Thursday announced that Pakistan will remain in its 'grey list' till April next year due to its inability to take necessary actions against terrorists, including Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar. The decision was announced after the conclusion of FATF's three-day plenary to discuss key issues in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing.
"Pakistan remains under increased monitoring (grey list). The Pakistan government has two concurrent action plans, with a total of 34 action plan items. It has now addressed or largely addressed 30 of the items," FATF president Marcus Pleyer was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
Pakistan has been on FATF's 'grey list' since June 2018 due to its inability to take actions against terror financing. In June this year, it was given three months to fulfil the remaining conditions by October. The anti-terror watchdog has said that Pakistan will remain on the grey list till it addresses all items on the original action plan agreed to in June 2018.
"The FATF encourages Pakistan to continue to make progress to address as soon as possible the one remaining Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT)-related item by demonstrating that Terror Financing (TF) investigations and prosecutions target senior leaders and commanders of UN-designated terrorist groups," the FATF had said earlier.
Meanwhile, the FATF on Thursday added Turkey, which is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), to its 'grey list'. Besides Turkey, the anti-terror global watchdog also added Mali and Jordan to the list. It said that all the countries have agreed "on an action plan with the FATF".
The FATF also expressed concerns over the situation in Afghanistan after the Taliban took control of the war-ravaged country following the withdrawal of US-led NATO troops and said that it, along with APG, EAG and Global Network, will "closely monitor" the situation there, including any changes to money laundering and terrorist financing risks in the country.
"Financial Action Task Force expresses its concern about the current evolving money laundering and terrorist financing risk environment in Afghanistan. We affirm recent UNSC resolutions on situation Afghanistan. We demand that country not be used to plan or finance terrorist acts," ANI quoted Pleyer as saying.