Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan said on Friday that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) repeatedly praised work and the political will demonstrated by the PTI government.
Earlier in the day, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) acknowledged that Pakistan has “substantially completed its two action plans”, saying that the watchdog will now schedule an on-site visit to verify the implementation of the measures.
Imran Khan said that the PTI government has not only averted blacklisting but also completed 32 out of 34 action items. “We submitted compliance report on remaining two items in April based on which FATF now declared Pakistan’s action plan as completed.”
The former prime minister detailed, “I constituted a FATF Coordination Committee headed by key minister Hammad Azhar. The committee had representation from all government departments and security agencies relevant to our FATF action plan. The officers worked day and night in the first instance to avoid blacklisting.”
“I am confident that prerequisite onsite visit of FATF team to confirm completed work on our action plan will pass successfully too,” said Khan.
“Pakistan was nominated for greylisting by FATF in Feb 2018 and had to complete the most challenging action plan ever given to any jurisdiction. When my government took over, we faced the dire prospect of Blacklisting by that body. Our past compliance history with FATF was also not favourable.”
It is important to mention here that Pakistan has not been formally removed from the FATF’s grey list.
In a statement, the watchdog acknowledged that Pakistan has completed both its action plans, covering 34 items and said this showed the necessary political commitment was in place to sustain implementation and improvement in the future.
The FATF also acknowledged Pakistan continued political commitment to combating both terrorist financing and money laundering, which it said had led to significant progress.