Is FATF Sleeping?

Pakistan was first placed on the grey list by the FATF in June, 2018 and was given a plan of action to complete it by October, 2019. Since then, Pakistan continues to be in that list despite complying with the FATF mandates. Pakistan has taken a number of steps through concerned efforts to observe FATF guidelines in order to come out of grey list which costs about $38 billion to the country’s GDP so far. Pakistan has made robust progress on global commitments by passing 17 laws within a parliamentary year, besides making dozens of rules, regulations and related compliance action with the support of all provinces and civil and military authorities. The Pakistani government has fulfilled the recent requirement of FATF by providing a list of terrorist entities and individuals, including those proscribed by the UN Security Council, to estate agents. The government has made it impossible for all banned terrorist organizations as well as their representatives to buy any sort of property anywhere in Pakistan. All this has made the government release a 99-page long list of banned outfits, which has been shared with stakeholders.

Apart from FBR ruling on real estate agents, Pakistan has passed multiple legislations through Parliament as part of efforts to move out from the FATF grey lost to the white list including following:

• The Mutual Legal Assistance (Criminal Matter) Bill, 2020
• Anti-Terrorism Act (Amendment) Bill, 2020
• Islamabad High Court (Amendment) Bill, 2019

In this way, Pakistan has removed the last remaining objection of FATF, which was used to keep Pakistan on the grey list. Now the opponents on the forum, spearheaded by India, will have less leverage over the final decision. That is a very important fact because everybody knows pretty well by now that it was diplomatic pressure on the outfit that kept it from freeing Pakistan from restrictions, not the real on-ground situation.

Just to support the stance, not only Asian countries but western countries are also hub of financial crimes and terror financing. London, one of the biggest financial centers in the world, has become an increasingly attractive place for criminals to hide their wealth. According to transparency group Global witness, around 87,000 properties in UK were owned by anonymous companies mostly in proximity to UK parliament. Total value of 40% of these properties is more than 100 billion pounds ($135 billion).

A French daily report revealed that a document from the Directorate General of External Security (DGSE) dated 26 August 2014 and labelled as ‘Confidential Defence’ showed that the French state was well aware that Lafarge maintained its activity in Syrian territory partly occupied by the Islamic State. Lafarge is accused of paying nearly 13 million euros ($15.3m) to armed groups including ISIL, to keep its cement factory in northern Syria.

German prosecutors raided the Finance and Justice Ministry over allegations on money laundering reports from banks amounting to millions of Euros was withheld by the financial intelligence Unit (FIU), a special unit of the Finance Ministry’s customs service that fights money laundering. Moreover, Economists have slammed US move to freeze Afghanistan’s $9 billion assets in central bank as unfair and politically motivated.

FATF has taken India to task for involvement in financial mismanagements and terror financing. There are concrete proof of Indian financial and material sponsorship of multiple terrorist organizations, including UN-designated terrorist organization Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, Balochistan Liberation Army and Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan. Evidence-based dossier has already been presented by Pakistan to the UN, OIC, and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council as well as their other influential world capitals.  

It is highly discouraging for the developing countries like Pakistan that despite making significant progress and completing almost all items on the action plan, Pakistan is still being maintained on the grey list. However, there are multiple reasons beyond the obvious move i.e. after Taliban takeover, US is left with no other option but to pressurize Pakistan through placing Pakistan on grey list to keep its hold in the region.  The decision made by FATF is truly biased and a good reason to believe that this platform is based on political agenda backed by certain countries like US and India to pressurize their opponents as Pakistan is fighting multi-front war against its enemies.

It is a palpable fact that if it FATF is not a political tool, then what about India that has sponsored/ financed terrorism in Pakistan through BLA. Kulbhushan Jadhav is a case in point. India has accepted that it used its political clout to ensure Pakistan does not move to the white list. Similarly, Indian involvement in terrorism in Sri Lanka has not been questioned by the West. Is it because the West has political and economic interest in India?