- Waking up to FATF threat at the eleventh hour
Almost overnight, the term, ‘Financial Action Task Force’ (FATF) has assumed ominous overtones and started dominating Parliament, government circles and media. There is an element of panic or ire in their debates after the sudden realisation that danger looms next week. The 37-member watchdog that sets global standards to combat money-laundering and terrorist financing, meets in Paris from Sunday to ponder a US-UK motion, seconded by Germany and France, to place Pakistan on its ‘grey list’ of non-compliant, terror–financing, watch list countries, a step described here as being ‘politically motivated’, ‘hampering economic growth’, ‘discouraging foreign investors’ and ‘unprecedented’ in its hasty introduction, without the mandatory Mutual Evaluation of Pakistan’s position by the monitoring Asia-Pacific Group, Pakistan not being an FATF member.
The interior minister and advisor to PM on finance are making last-ditch efforts abroad to evade the ruinous economic trap, but the Iqama–holding foreign minister is conspicuously absent. If the US-UK motion is accepted, it would be the second such dubious distinction for the country, as it was previously listed in February 2012 and removed in June 2015, after effective anti-money-laundering measures taken by Parliament and State Bank of Pakistan.
The stakes this time are higher. Apart from domestic political turmoil, the economy is a mess, with external debt at $89 billion and Foreign Direct Investment already declining 4.5 percent to $106 million in January 2018 from $111 million in January 2017. And FATF full member India, exploiting its newfound ‘natural’ alliance with the US, is the real moving spirit behind the step. Pakistan’s alleged non-implementation of residual ‘strategic deficiencies’, left over from the 2015 delisting concerning Lashkar-i- Taiba, Jamaatud Dawa and Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation, all declared terrorist organisations under UNSC Resolution 1267, make it easier for India to band up with a belligerent Trump administration, desperate to extricate itself from the Afghan quagmire, to pressurise Pakistan by all possible means. A presidential ordinance and cabinet approval of anti-terrorism laws last week addressed these concerns somewhat, but an urgent joint session of both Houses (fully attended!) should make an in-depth review. Time now for the long evaded tough decisions.