Former PTI cabinet members on Friday lauded the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Announcement That Pakistan had completed all 34 items on two separate action plans.
The watchdog will now schedule an on-site tour to verify the country’s implementation and stability of anti-money laundering and counter-terror financing measures, adding that Pakistan will be taken off the gray list if it successfully passes the visit to the site. Will go
Soon after the development, former Prime Minister Imran Khan said “the FATF repeatedly praised the work and my government’s political performance”.
He said that when his government came to power [in 2018]It faced “a direct possibility of blacklisting” by the body, saying the country’s compliance history with the FATF was also not favourable.
“I set up a FATF Coordination Committee under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Hammad Azhar. The committee had representations from all government departments and security agencies related to our FATF action plan. The officials worked day and night at first to avoid blacklisting .
“FATF repeatedly praised the work and my government demonstrated political will. We not only avoided blacklisting, but also completed 32 action items out of 34. We submitted a compliance report on the remaining two items in April Based on which the FATF has now announced Pakistan’s action. The plan is complete,” he said.
Imran expressed confidence that the onsite visit of FATF will also be successful. He lauded Azhar, saying the former energy minister, members of his FATF coordination committee and officials concerned “performed exceptionally well”.
“The whole country is proud of you,” he said.
Hammad Azhar, who was the former energy minister and also the government’s top coordinator for anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing efforts in the last four years, shared a picture of himself standing with the authorities, saying Pakistan’s hard work should be recognized. The 34-action items to be completed were “the result of the teamwork of officers working day and night in various government departments. They are the real heroes!”
Before the announcement, Senator Ejaz Chaudhry had expressed hope that Pakistan would be out of the gray list, terming it as a result of the work of the Imran Khan-led government.
Meanwhile, the PML-N’s official Twitter account criticized the PTI government for isolating Pakistan diplomatically, leading to various economic sanctions.
It said that now, however, the nations of the world had agreed to restore relations and the world’s confidence in Pakistan was being restored.
PPP leader and Minister of State for External Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar was asked how much credit she would give to the PTI government, to which she said: “Whoever wants to take credit can do so. Our job is to work for Pakistan, We will keep working and we don’t care who gets credit and who doesn’t.”
answer In his statement, PTI leader and former information minister, Fawad Chaudhry recalled that Khar was among the MPs who refused to vote In favor of passing FATF-related bills in 2020 because “he said we will vote on these bills only if you put an end to the money laundering cases against Zardari and Sharif.”
Michael Kugelman, a South Asian affairs scholar at Washington’s Wilson Center, put all the credit for any outcome on the PTI government’s shoulders.
“The FATF’s assessment of Pakistan’s efforts to complete its action plan to remove the gray list mainly covers the period when PTI was in power,” he said. So the decision of FATF today will be based on the work done in the PTI era.
He added that the army “can take due credit, as I am sure they will be behind many of the actions taken to get Pakistan out of the gray list”. However, as far as the Pakistan Democratic Movement, which included many of the parties in the current coalition government, could take credit for the development, they responded with a brief “no”.