Pakistan on FATF watchdog list to hamper counter-terrorism efforts: Minister
Islamabad [Pakistan], Feb 19 (ANI): Placing Pakistan on the watch list of countries funding terrorism will be counter-productive and hamper joint efforts to curb terrorism, Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal warned on Monday.
ANI
Feb 19, 2018 23:29 IST
Islamabad [Pakistan], Feb 19 (ANI): Placing Pakistan on the watch list of countries funding terrorism will be counter-productive and hamper joint efforts to curb terrorism, Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal warned on Monday.
The minister warning the global community said the move would hurt Islamabad's capability to fight terrorism, and questioned whose interests would be served by putting Pakistan on the watchlist, Dawn News reported.
Iqbal's statement comes as a week-long plenary session of global anti-money-laundering watchdog the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is underway, where review proposals have been tabled calling for Pakistan to be put back on a list of countries which have failed to prevent terrorist financing.
If adopted, the resolution would place Pakistan on the FATF grey-list of "jurisdictions with deficient anti-money laundering regimes".
The International Cooperation Review Group in Argentina in November last year adopted a resolution calling attention to Pakistan's support to the Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and affiliated groups like Jamaat-ud Dawa.
Iqbal said Islamabad had been diplomatically engaging different countries to apprise them of the measures taken in the war against terrorism, adding that he hoped the international community would recognise Pakistan's sacrifices in this direction.
The FATF is an intergovernmental organisation founded in 1989 to develop policies to combat money laundering, but after 9/11 it has focused more on preventing terrorist financing.
Over 700 delegates from the FATF global network, as well as the United Nations, International Monetary Fund, World Bank and other partners will attend meetings from February 18-23.
Pakistan hopes that China will rescue it again. Pakistan has also lobbied for support with Russia, Turkey and members of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Pakistan is not a member state of FATF: instead, it is a FATF Associate Member of the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG).(ANI)
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