In yet another welcome development, Pakistan out of  high risk third countries list. Yes, UK has removed our country from this list through what we may call a statutory instrument.  It means that the UK foreign office recognizes the progress made by our country regarding its removal from the infamous FATF's grey list.

It is great for us that the United Kingdom has acknowledged our sincere efforts to thwart the money laundering and terror financing bids and coming with more curbs against such practices. One would hail the development as it is something to cheer about. At times, when the nation is faced with multiple issues ranging from political anarchy to social and economic crunch, there is very little to cheer about.

In this prevailing tense situation, the good news that Pakistan has finally come out of the 'increased monitoring list' - generally known as grey list - of the Financial Action Task Force, is something to celebrate and cheer about. Our country faced a lot of hardships and difficulties due to its presence on this infamous list and had been languishing in the ill-reputed category for over four years.

Thank God that the strenuous and continued efforts by our governments have finally bore fruit  after  fifty-two months, which is a long period. Anyway, it is good to see that finally our country has not only attained a high level of technical compliance with FATF principles but has also ensured high degree of efficiency by effectively implementing the two wide-ranging FATF action plans to qualify for exit from the grey list. It was definitely a difficult rather an herculean task to meet the FATF tough conditions, but credit goes to those at the helm of affairs to successfully meet the demands and standards of FATF, which is basically a multidimensional anti-money laundering and combating terrorism financing watchdog at international level. 

It may be recalled here that in June last, FATF had acknowledged Pakistan to  be "compliant or largely compliant" on all the 34 points, after which it also sent an on-site team to Pakistan last month  to check and verify the situation on ground. After that visit, it then formally announced Pakistan's removal from the infamous list.

In fact, we had qualified to stage the exit from the grey list in a logical way after making hectic efforts since June 2018 as it was not an easy task to convince the concerned authorities on each and every issue. During the FATF visit in August and September this year, the members of the visiting mission held a detailed meetings and deliberations with the Pak agencies  which successfully convinced the visiting 15-member team about the country's  high-level assurance, commitment, adherence and sustainability of reforms concerning the anti-money laundering/eliminating the financing of militancy and terrorism regime. After evaluating the situation on the ground, the visiting mission issued a  positive report which is now under discussion at the ongoing  FATF's ICRG (International Cooperation Review Group) and plenary sessions.

As reported, the first FATF session took October 20-21, 2022 while the delegates from the 206 members of the Global Network and observer bodies like the IMF, UN, WB, Interpol and the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units,  met in the sessions of the Working Group and Plenary Sessions in Paris. After detailed discussions and deliberations, the formal decision will be announced. It may be recalled here that Pakistan had to infamous list in June 2018 for what the international watch dog termed as "deficiencies in its legal, financial, regulatory, investigations, prosecution, judicial and non-government sector to fight money laundering and combat terror financing considered serious threat to global financial system". The list was very long and it took four year for Pakistan to finally convince the FATF on these issues after commitments to address them under a comprehensive action plan.

The news is really good in these testing times when floods have multiplied our woes and the nation is faced with multitude of issues. Credit goes to the state functionalities for doing their utmost to taking the country off the grey list. On the one hand, the Modi Sarkar regime was busy in anti-Pakistan agenda but it is good that the FATC authorities were not swayed by the negative propaganda of Indian government and  the international watch dog decided the Pakistan's case on pure merit without being influenced by the lies of India or other hostile anti-Pakistan elements.

To conclude, one may advise those at the helm of affair to continue with their mission of reforming the financial sector with a view to strengthening our economy and enhancing our image at international level. All the stakeholders continue to make collective efforts in this regard so that such a situation does not emerge in future. We should learn lesson from the hardships which we faced during the last four years while being on the grey list. And now we are finally going to exit from this list, we should be extra-careful and vigilant in our future course of action to avoid future embarrassments.

Published in The Daily National Courier, November, 16 2022

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