ISLAMABAD - Chairman Senate Standing Committee Senator Rehman Malik has thanked President Financial Action Task Force Marshall Billingslea for granting a relief of five months to Pakistan amid the coronavirus outbreak in the country and has urged him to grant permanent relief to Pakistan by removing it from the ‘Grey List”.

He has also thanked UN Chief whom he had written a letter on March 26th, 2020 pleading to play a role in removing Pakistan name from FATF Grey List in wake of Coronavirus outbreak. In this regard he sent letters of thanks to President FATF, Secretary General UN and Permanent Representative of Pakistan to UNO.

Senator A. Rehman Malik had written a letter to FATF’s Chief earlier on March 21st, 2020 in which he had pleaded him to remove the name of Pakistan from FATF’s Grey List in wake of coronavirus outbreak to enable the country to exercise full potential against the pandemic.

In his letter, he had conveyed “with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing human tragedies, closure of production units, damage to the social fabric, and severe strains on the global supply chains, the threats to Pakistan’s economy have increased manifold.’’

He had expressed that the unmitigated spread of COVID-19, due to lack of sufficient resources driven by financial restrains, is a regional mega-human tragedy in waiting. The ongoing pandemic is pushing all states towards rapidly escalating economic regression, threatening the human security and brewing severe socio-economic imbalances that are ripening to trigger massive migration issues in the region”. 

He had pleaded that solicit your (President FATF) review of the circumstances, particularly in the light of COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing humanitarian concerns, to remove the name of Pakistan from the FATF’s Grey List.