Curb terror funding by October: FATF warns Pakistan

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has warned Pakistan of action against it if the country does not improve its counter-terror financing operations in line with an internationally agreed action plan by October.

The FATF also expressed concern over the failure of Pakistan to complete its action plan by January and again by May 2019.

"Strongly urge Pakistan to swiftly complete its action plan by October 2019 when the last set of action plan items are set to expire. Otherwise, the FATF will decide the next step at that time for insufficient progress," the body said in a statement.

Since June 2018, Pakistan has taken steps towards improving its anti-money laundering and counter- financing of terrorism regime, the organisation said.

However, it stressed that these actions do not demonstrate a proper understanding of Pakistan's transnational terrorism financing risk.

Pakistan has been already put by the FATF on the "grey list" of countries with insufficient controls to tackle money laundering and terror financing.

Meanwhile, India has urged Pakistan to take all necessary steps to effectively implement the FATF Action Plan fully within the remaining time frame by September 2019.

It further said that the neighbouring nation must take action in accordance with its political commitment to the FATF and take credible, verifiable, irreversible and sustainable measures to address global concerns related to terrorism and terrorist financing emanating from any territory under its control.

Earlier in February, the multilateral body on terror financing in a statement had said that Pakistan did not have proper understanding of the terror financing risks posed by Da'esh (ISIS), al-Qaida, JuD (Jamat-ud-Dawa), FIF (Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation), LeT (Lashkar-e-Taiba), JeM (Jaish-e-Mohammed), HQN (Haqqani Network) and persons affiliated with the Taliban.

The decision to keep Pakistan in the FATF "grey list" came after the Pulwama terror attacks that killed over 44 CRPF personnel.

Copyright: The Statesman/Asia News Network