Pakistani delegation reaches Paris to plead case in FATF meeting

PARIS: A delegation comprising of officials from finance and interior ministries reached Paris on Tuesday to plead Pakistan’s case at the ongoing session of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) that is taking up a US-sponsored resolution to put Islamabad on a list of countries that financially aid terrorism.

The delegation is led by Director-General Financial Monitoring Unit Syed Mansoor Shah and comprising other members of the Foreign and Interior ministries as well. Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance Dr Miftah Ismail will also be part of the meetings.

According to reports, Dr Miftah reached Paris after visiting Germany, Netherlands and Belgium last week in an attempt to garner support against the US move.

The FATF is holding six-day-long meetings to discuss issues ‘to protect the integrity of the global financial system and contribute to safety and security’. The meetings involve more than 700 delegates from the 203 jurisdictions of the FATF Global Network, as well as the UN, IMF, World Bank and other partners.

The plenary meetings will take place from February 21 to 23 and will focus on counter-terrorism financing and proliferation financing. The US and the UK have moved a motion to place Pakistan on the FATF terrorist-financing watchlist. France and Germany are co-sponsoring the move.

If the FATF adopts the resolution, the country can again be placed on the grey list of jurisdictions with deficient anti-money laundering regimes after a gap of three years. Pakistan suspects Indian role behind the US-sponsored resolution as Ismail recently lamented that the FATA was used for political purposes.