Pakistan made efforts to address weaknesses in CFT regime: US

WASHINGTON: Following the placement of Pakistan in the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) ‘grey list’, the US State Department said that Pakistan has made a high-level political commitment to combating terrorism financing.

According to a local media report, the US State Department suggested Islamabad to meet its obligations under the UN Security Council Resolution 1267 to freeze and prevent the raising and moving of funds belonging to or associated with UN-designated terrorist groups.

According to a State Department official, Pakistan has made efforts to work with FATF in order to address its weaknesses in the counterterrorism financing (CFT) regime and encouraged it to meet its commitments.

Earlier, the FATF held its plenary session in Paris where Pakistan presented a 26-point action plan to stamp out terrorism financing.

The 26-point plan, prepared for Pakistan by FATF’s Inter­national Cooperation Review Group (ICRG), requires Islam­abad to erase all sources of financing to terrorist outfits. Failure to do so could have placed Pakistan on the FATF blacklist, leading to serious economic sanctions.

FATF, an inter-governmental body established in 1989 to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, identified Pakistan as “a jurisdiction with strategic AML/CFT (anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism) deficiencies.”