ISLAMABAD - The National Task Force on Combating Financing of Terrorism on Thursday urged all the stakeholders for implementation of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)’s Action Plan to move Pakistan out of its grey list.
The meeting of the National Task Force on CFT was held in the chair of National Coordinator, National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) Khalid Dad Lak at the authority’s headquarters. All the 29 members of the Task Force from federal and provincial governments and other organisations including Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Federal Board of Revenue, Anti Narcotics Force, State bank of Pakistan, Financial Monitoring Unit, State Bank of Pakistan, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Interior, provincial home departments and counter terrorism departments of relevant provinces attended the meeting.
The official sources in NACTA said that this was the 11th meeting of the Task Force on CFT but all the meetings have so far failed to come up with some concrete plans or measures to implement the FATA’s Action Plan. NACTA in an official statement issued after the meeting did not give any details about what steps the Task Force have taken so far to combat money laundering and terror financing.
A delegation of the Asia-Pacific Group (APG) in its recent visit to Pakistan had expressed dissatisfaction over the country’s progress to counter money laundering and terror financing. The group had pointed out deficiencies in relevant laws and regulations of Pakistan that are hurdles to comply with the international practices on CFT and anti-money laundering (AML). The group in its findings shared with the Pakistani authorities said that Pakistan would not be able to get out of the grey list keeping in view its on-going pace on the issue.
According to the statement of NACTA, Khaliq Dad Lak apprised the participants that Task Force on CFT provided a common platform for sharing experiences and exchanging information. He underscored the importance of qualitative improvements in investigations and prosecutions of terrorist financing cases and urged the law enforcement agencies to carry out parallel financial investigations so as to unearth the financial trail behind the terrorist incidents. He also informed the participants of the various guidelines and SOPs which NACTA has recently issued for financial investigations of terrorism cases and other related matters. It was emphasized that a targeted, organized and whole-hearted effort should be made by all responsible stakeholders for timely implementation of the FATF Action Plan.
Earlier, the Task Force took stock of the progress made on the decisions taken in its 10th meeting. The issues concerning implementation of FATF Action Plan were thoroughly discussed. The Financial Monitoring Unit also apprised the participants on the recent onsite visit of the Asia Pacific Group for Pakistan’s mutual evaluation carried out from 7th to 19th October, 2018. Pakistan Customs briefed the Task Force on the steps it is taking as regards currency declarations. Other departments also provided their input on various CFT matters.
The APG delegation will visit again Pakistan in March-April next year for another ‘mutual evaluation’ whose report will be made public in July 2019.
Pakistan will have to comply with the 10-point Action Plan, by the end of September next year, it had committed with the FATF in June this year on CFT and AML to get out of the grey list and otherwise it will fall into the blacklist.