(Disclaimer: this is a work of fiction. Learn to take a joke; you’ll live longer.)
PARIS/ISLAMABAD – The FATF has decided to keep Pakistan on its travel bucket list for another four months, reported the local media this week.
The decision was taken at the end of the FATF meeting, held in Paris from October 13 to October 18, where it was decided that Pakistan be given till spring 2020 to fully implement the FATF’s 27-point plan, following which the country would be placed on the travel bucket list for summers as well.
The FATF, in its statement, said that the country has made major progress on the tourism front and hence at least one representative from each of the 39 member countries would be holidaying in Pakistan next year.
The FATF’s announcement came just as Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William and Kate Middleton, were concluding their trip to Pakistan.
The FATF’s decision to place Pakistan on the travel bucket list has also come in the aftermath of the country successfully hosting Sri Lanka in Karachi and Lahore for ODI and T20I series.
Meanwhile, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Hammad Azhar, who led Pakistan’s delegation in Paris, on Wednesday expressed the confidence that Pakistan was progressing positively on the action plan of the FATF and would come out of its “travel bucket list” in 2020.
“We’ll be in the travel checklist next year, promoting ourselves from a place where travelers would want to go, to one where they simply have to go,” Azhar said.
