Pakistan needs more laws to meet remaining 3 FATF benchmarks before June deadline
Pakistan will have to enact laws on at least two counts to meet the three outstanding benchmarks of the 27-point action plan of FATF before June.
- World News
- 3 min read
Pakistan will have to enact laws on at least two counts to meet the three outstanding benchmarks of the 27-point action plan of the global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog FATF before the new June deadline, reported by PTI. In June 2018, FATF placed Pakistan on the 'grey list' and asked Islamabad to implement a plan of action to curb money laundering and terror financing by the end of 2019. But later on, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the deadline was extended. The new deadline was set by the FATF last month.
In recent months Pakistan has been struggling to avoid being added to a list of deemed countries with anti-money laundering and terrorist financing regulations by the FATF. The government will have to submit an updated report within a month to the FATF on the progress on legislation and other steps to be taken to address the outstanding concerns.
Pakistan's FATF Benchmarks
Over the past few years to meet the FATF requirements, the government had changed almost three dozen laws. There should not be any hurdle in the way of making two more amendments, said Dawn, reported PTI
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During a meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) on Anti-Money Laundering, Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh asked the Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU) and chairman of the FATF Coordination Committee and Industries and Production Minister Hammad Azhar to immediately finalise the timelines for additional legislation in consultation with agencies of the federal government and the armed forces.
All the agencies and stakeholders should act in close coordination to meet the deadlines well in advance and the deadlines should be reasonable to be shared with the FATF, reported PTI.
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Over the past two years, it was observed that Pakistan had made progress and was being appreciated by the International communities. But simultaneously it did not send a good message when international commitments and deadlines were missed repeatedly, reported by PTI.
The additional laws have to cover some weaknesses in the existing framework that limits the authorities from taking action, including imposing a sanction or apprehending those acting for or on behalf of designated terrorist entities or individuals and prosecuting targeted persons and entities or those working for them, within certain deadlines.
According to the reports, there are three outstanding action points include demonstrating that:
- Terrorism Financing (TF) investigations and prosecutions target persons and entities acting on behalf or at the direction of the designated persons or entities.
- demonstrating that TF prosecutions result in effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions.
- demonstrate effective implementation of targeted financial sanctions against all designated terrorists, specifically those acting for or on their behalf.
(With PTI Inputs)