Pakistan is under tremendous pressure to show tangible progress within two months after a recent warning by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to deliver on its directives on curbing terror financing and money laundering, the Dawn has reported.
According to the report, the achievement of 27 targets under a 10-point action plan has now become a top priority for the government. The Imran Khan government announced a ban on Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and Falah-e-Insanyat Foundation (FIF) to partially address the concerns raised by India that Pakistan supported these and six similar organisations, including Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) or at least considered them low-risk entities.
Jaish had claimed responsibility for the recent Pulwama attack in which more than 40 CRPF jawans died. In the wake of the attack, the FATF had stated that “such incidents proved that terrorism continued to threaten societies and citizens around the world, which could not occur without money and the means to move funds among terrorist supporters”.
It was reported that six banks had been fined and 109 bankers were being investigated for opening fake bank accounts. About 8,707 suspicious transaction reports (STRs) were issued in 2018 by the Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU), showing almost 57 per cent growth over 5,548 STRs of 2017. About 1,136 STRs were issued in January and February this year alone, Dawn reported.
However, this has not satisfied the international agencies. The ICRG was not satisfied with progress on milestones set for January 2019. This was despite improvements in the anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regime and integrated database for currency declaration arrangements, the report said.
It showed concerns about Pakistani authorities’ inability to demonstrate why they considered eight proscribed entities to be low risk as opposed to the high-risk view of the APG and ICRG. Therefore, the FATF urged “Pakistan to swiftly complete its action plan, particularly those with timelines of May 2019” to address strategic deficiencies.
It said Pakistan had revised its terror financing risk assessment, but did “not demonstrate a proper understanding of the terror financing risks posed by Islamic State group, AQ (Al Qaeda), JuD, FIF, LeT (Lashkar-e-Taiba), JeM, HQN (Haqqani Network), and persons affiliated with the Taliban”.
Meanwhile, in India also doubts are being raised over the sincerity of Pakistan in combating terror. Pakistan has rejected the visa requests of a United Nations team to interview 26/11 Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed residing in Pakistan.
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