- Not out of the woods yet
Surely the government does not need any reminding that a black listing at the FATF will deliver the kiss of death to its dreams of economic revival. It will not be able to float bonds that it likes so much, even though critics are not so convinced of what good they can do in the present environment. And, worse still, Islamabad will also be kicked out of the international lending regime, which means it will have to say goodbye to a likely IMF program as well. Since that, in turn, is the only sure way of staying solvent even in this fiscal – despite the government’s claims to the contrary – failure to secure the FATF could well mean that Pakistan falls over the edge and defaults.
In this backdrop, it would just be irresponsible for any party to claim that the last meeting went better than expected; or even that it went well at all. It turns out that the Task Force believes that Pakistan, even so late in the day, does not have proper understanding terror financing risks posed by organisations like Da’esh, al Qaeda, JuD, FiF, LeT, JeM, Haqqani Network, even persons associated with the Taliban. It is not really possible to be any more straight forward than that.
Pakistan now has till May-June to get an understanding, so to speak, of such terror financing and the risks it brings especially considering the organisations named specifically. That the government has moved to take over some headquarters, confiscate some equipment and outlaw some outfits is welcome. But much, much more needs to be done in very little time. That such surprise has been expressed at the bad state of affairs is a surprise in itself. These problems have been allowed to grow, unchecked, for far too long; even when alarm bells were ringing loud and clear. First there was no will to deal with the matter. And now that circumstances have forced the government to act, there might not be enough time.