FATF has finally removed Pakistan from the grey list. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has recently decided to remove Pakistan’s name from the grey list. FATF has been monitoring Pakistan for the last 4 to 5 years. After extensive monitoring and Pakistan’s struggles to fight terrorism, they have decided to remove Pakistan’s name. The country has been on the “grey list” of FATF since 2018. The reason for putting Pakistan on the list was “strategic counter-terrorist financing-related deficiencies”. The country has been struggling to get off the list ever since. However, recently the country made progress and Pakistan was able to come out of the list.
FATF President T Raja Kumar announced the removal decision on an international forum. There was a 2-day meeting in Paris, France where the FATF announced its decision. While announcing the decision T Raja Kumar said in his speech that Pakistan has managed to address the difficulties. Moreover, the country also addressed its technical deficiencies to meet the commitment of its action plan. However, experts believe that the decision was taken almost 3 to 4 months ago. FATF announced in June that it would not remove the country from the grey list until members visit the country. Members of the FATF soon visited the country and took notice of the financial spending of the country.
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After extensive monitoring and verification process, the members took the decision to remove Pakistan from the FATF grey list. The team came to Pakistan for verification in late August amid the flood situation. The foreign office of Pakistan declared that the visit was a success soon after the visit. However, the office said that it hopes for a logical and better conclusion and decision at the next evaluation meeting. FATF scheduled the next evaluation meeting to happen in October.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister announced the removal of the country from the grey list. In his announcement, he thanked all the institutions that worked day and night to achieve this target. FATF put the country on the grey list in 2018. FATF gave Pakistan a 27-point agenda to work on which later increased to 34 points. These points included progressions such as money laundering, terrorist financing, and action against terrorist groups and organizations.