ISLAMABAD: A delegation of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has arrived in Islamabad to hold talks with top government officials. The delegation comprising members of the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering will be briefed by various ministries on the implementation of a 12-point plan shared by the global watchdog of financial transactions with the Government of Pakistan.
During its stay in the country till August 16, the delegation will hold talks with officials from ministries of Foreign Affairs, Interior, and Finance, alongside members of the National Counter-Terrorism Authority (NACTA). It will be briefed on steps taken by the country to counter money laundering and terror financing.
At a meeting of FATF in June, Pakistan was formally added to the grey list of countries with lax regulatory mechanisms enabling terrorist outfits to generate and move funds for their operations.
According to FATF’s statement issued after the meeting, Pakistan had ‘committed to address its strategic counter-terrorist financing-related deficiencies’.
The statement said that Islamabad would work to implement its action plan to accomplish 10 broad objectives. These are: demonstrating that terrorist financing risks are properly identified, assessed, and that supervision is applied on a risk-sensitive basis; that remedial actions and sanctions are applied in case of violations; that competent authorities are cooperating and taking action to identify and take enforcement action against illegal money or value transfer services (MVTS); that authorities are identifying cash couriers and enforcing controls on illicit movement of currency and understanding the risk of cash couriers being used for terrorist financing; that law enforcement agencies (LEAs) are identifying and investigating the widest range of terrorist financing activity and that terrorist financing investigations and prosecutions target designated persons and entities, and persons and entities acting on behalf or at the direction of the designated persons or entities; that terrorist financing prosecutions result in effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions and enhancing the capacity and support for prosecutors and the judiciary; that effective implementation of targeted financial sanctions against all 1267 and 1373 designated terrorists and those acting for or on their behalf, including preventing the raising and moving of funds, identifying and freezing assets (movable and immovable), and prohibiting access to funds and financial services; enforcement against targeted financial sanctions violations including administrative and criminal penalties and provincial and federal authorities cooperating on enforcement cases; that facilities and services owned or controlled by designated persons are deprived of their resources and the usage of the resources; and improving inter-agency coordination, including between provincial and federal authorities, on combating terrorist financing risks.
Published in Daily Times, August 14th 2018.
