NSC meeting: Civil-mil leadership for effective choking on terror financing

• Pakistan satisfied with its action to put curbs on money laundering by TTP, JuD, JeM

• Despite knee-jerk reaction by Ghani, Pakistan to attend dialogue in Kabul

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday expressed satisfaction over its campaign against proscribed organisations and decided to speed up the action by certain ministries on “few outstanding” areas to ensure an effective check on terror financing and money-laundering by proscribed organisations, particularly Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), Jamaatud Daawa (JuD) and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

The decision was taken during the eighteenth meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC) chaired by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, which was attended by Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif, Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal, Joint Chief of Staff Committee (JCSC) Chairman General Zubair Mehmood Hayat, army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, National Security Advisor Nasser Khan Janjua among other civil and military officials.

“The meeting reviewed the actions taken by the government of Pakistan and provincial governments to fulfil the country’s international responsibilities under the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) framework,” said an official handout issued following the meeting.

“The committee expressed satisfaction over the objectives achieved so far and directed the concerned ministries to complete the few outstanding actions at the earliest. The committee directed that the achievements made by Pakistan in fulfilling its international obligations should be fully shared with the FATF, and expressed its hope that the FATF will not be politicised by a few countries,” the statement said.

Sources privy to the minutes of the meeting said that Pakistan had been taking measures against proscribed organisations, prominent among them Hafiz Saeed’s charity JuD as well as the JeM.

The sources said that Pakistan reviewed its strategy in wake of the plenary meeting of the Paris-based FATF later this month. The official website of the FATF shows October 2018 for a possible on-site visit to Pakistan.

It merits mention that FATF keenly monitors countries hit by terrorism with a specific focus on areas like money laundering and terrorist financing. Of late, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) sent out warnings to companies against “donating cash to the entities and individuals listed under the United Nations Security Council sanctions committee’s consolidated list”.

The FATF in the past has said that it remained “concerned” about the ML/FT risks posed by terrorists to Pakistan and reaffirmed its public statement of February 28, 2008, regarding these risks.

The FATF meeting has an added significance in the wake of President Donald Trump’s January 1 policy tweets, threatening Pakistan of looking away from terrorists operating from its soil. The US has at FATF’s annual meetings singled out Pakistan for being involved in terrorist funding.

PAKISTAN TO ATTEND SATURDAY’S DIALOGUE IN KABUL:

In its first official reaction to the harsh reaction coming from Afghanistan over the recent deadly terrorist attacks, Pakistan said that the reaction of the Afghan government was based on “misconceptions created by certain foreign elements”, vowing to go ahead with its planned dialogue in Kabul on Saturday.

The announcement came in the wake of Afghan media reports that Afghanistan President Dr Ashraf Ghani had refused to take a condolence call made by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi last week over a terrorist attack in Kabul at a military training facility.

“The Committee emphasised that the people of Pakistan understand the pain and anguish of the people of Afghanistan very well since they are themselves the greatest victims of terrorism,” said the statement.

The Committee reviewed the security situation in the region and strongly condemned the recent spate of terrorist attacks in Kabul and observed that the government and people of Pakistan shared the grief and sorrow of their Afghan brethren and stood by their side in complete solidarity.

“It expressed the resolve to forge ahead, despite difficulties, with positive engagement with Afghanistan, including the already planned visit of the Pakistani delegation to Kabul on February 3, 2018, for discussions on Pakistan’s proposed ‘Afghanistan-Pakistan Action Plan for Solidarity’,” the statement said.

The meeting expressed satisfaction over the progress made with regard to border controls with Afghanistan and noted that the Afghan government should support the fencing of the Pakistan-Afghan border as being in the interest of both countries. The NSC reaffirmed Pakistan’s position of continuing to play its role for regional stability and peace.