FATF meets Thursday to assess Pakistans actions on countering terror financing
- At the conclusion of its last plenary in October, the FATF had given Pakistan time till February this year to address “very serious deficiencies” in efforts to counter terror financing
PUBLISHED ON FEB 10, 2021 09:09 PM IST
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will begin a series of meetings on Thursday that will review Pakistan’s actions to counter terror financing amid signs that Islamabad is yet to completely implement the multilateral watchdog’s action plan.
There will be eight meetings of FATF’s working groups between February 11 and 19 before the crucial plenary meeting during February 22-25 that will take a final call on Pakistan’s case. All the meetings are being held virtually because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Pakistan has taken some steps in recent months, such as the prosecution of Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed and his aides in terror financing cases, though people familiar with developments said on condition of anonymity these actions still did not completely fulfill the 27 points in FATF's action plan.
“Some of these actions are the type of things Pakistan does whenever it faces pressure from the West to crack down on terror. They aren’t irreversible steps to completely stop activities of terror groups,” said one of the people cited above.
At the conclusion of its last plenary in October, the FATF had given Pakistan time till February this year to address what it described as “very serious deficiencies” in efforts to counter terror financing. The watchdog also retained Pakistan in the “grey list”, in which it was placed in June 2018.
FATF president Marcus Pleyer last year cautioned Pakistan that it would not be given a chance “forever” to address outstanding issues and that repeated failure to deliver on the action plan would result in a country being put in the “black list”. Pleyer also said Pakistan had fully complied with 21 of 27 points in the action plan.
The people cited above said Pakistan had fallen short in acting against fund raising by UN-designated terror groups, the conviction of UN-listed individuals, and curbing terror financing through narcotics and smuggling of precious gems.
The people said it was widely anticipated Pakistan would remain in the grey list and no further action could be taken, in view of the country’s current role in the Afghan peace process. Most Western countries with troops in Afghanistan are keen on a drawdown, which can only be carried out if Pakistan pushes the Taliban to stick to the peace process.
However, ahead of the FATF meetings, Pakistan’s civilian and military leadership has launched a concerted campaign to blame India for fomenting unrest and allegedly backing terror groups based in Afghanistan.
The leaders, including foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, have latched on to news anchor Arnab Goswami’s purported WhatsApp chat transcripts, a report from EU DisinfoLab and a UN report about the renewed activities of the Pakistani Taliban in Afghanistan to push a narrative about India’s so-called role in attempts to destabilise Pakistan. India has dismissed these accusations.
Sameer Patil, research fellow of international security studies at Gateway House, said Pakistan’s latest actions were an attempt to distract attention from its failure to act against banned terror groups in line with FATF’s recommendations.
“Even if these accusations are taken at face value, Pakistan has been given opportunities in the past to bring credible evidence to the table to back up their allegations, which they have failed to do. This is nothing but an attempt to obfuscate the main issue, which is that the terror groups remain active even if they don’t currently operate,” he said.
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