ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday expressed deep concern over Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s remarks to have “Pakistan downgraded on the FATF list”, calling upon the global finance watchdog to ensure Islamabad’s progress in implementing the FATF Action Plan is assessed in a “fair and unbiased” manner.
“The statement re-confirms Pakistan’s longstanding concerns that this technical forum is being politicised by India against Pakistan,” the Foreign Office said in a statement.
India’s call came a day after UN Security Council committee blacklisted the founder of the banned Jaish-e-Mohammed group, Maulana Masood Azhar as Pakistan convinced the UNSC members to delink the listing from the Kashmir freedom movement.
The FATF had placed in 2018 Pakistan on the grey list of countries whose terrorism financing and anti-money laundering laws are described as deficient.
Out of 27 points, Pakistan is required to fully meet 19 point including 3 that the FATF did not declare satisfactory in the first review.
There will be two more reviews: this month and in September 2019 before the FATF takes a decision on whether to remove Pakistan from the grey list.
India, the Foreign Office said, had made several efforts in the past as well to politicise the proceedings at FATF i.e. it circulated its own assessment of Pakistan’s progress and solicited immediate support for “blacklisting” Pakistan prior to the FATF plenary meeting in February 2019.
It said that on several previous occasions calculated leaks were made to the Indian media about the proceedings of FATF, which are strictly confidential.
“These instances of politicisation by India were brought to the attention of the president of FATF by the finance minister of Pakistan,” the communiqué read.
The FO argued that India’s attempts to politicise the proceedings in FATF against Pakistan questioned its credentials for co-chairing and being a member of the Asia Pacific Joint Group.
“Pakistan remains committed to fully implementing the FATF Action Plan. This commitment has been made at the highest political level. However, FATF must ensure that the process remains fair, unbiased and firmly grounded in the technical criteria of the forum,” it said.