A majority of members of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) have recognised Pakistan’s efforts to improve its counter-terrorism financing (CTF) regime at the financial watchdog’s latest plenary meeting in Paris, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Friday.
“It was decided at the meeting that Pakistan will be allowed more time to continue implementing its action plan,” said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang at a news briefing in Beijing.
The statement by the Chinese government comes hours ahead of the expected FATF decision regarding Pakistan’s fate on the watchdog’s ‘grey’ list.
Asked to comment on Indian media reports that China had changed its position at FATF to no longer support Pakistan, Geng said: “China’s position on the relevant issue remains unchanged.
“China maintains that the purpose and aim of the FATF is to support countries’ efforts to strengthen institutions against money laundering and terror financing and safeguard the international financing system. We stand ready to work with relevant parties to offer more assistance to Pakistan in this area.”
The Chinese foreign ministry echoed similar views through a tweet, noting that “Pakistan has made enormous efforts in improving its CTF regime, which has been recognised by the majority of FATF members at the latest plenary meeting in Paris. China & other countries will continue offering assistance to Pakistan in this area.”
Also on Friday, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh in a meeting with Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Yao Jing thanked the Chinese government for “their massive support in the FATF meetings”, a statement issued by the Finance Division said.
“China and other brotherly countries have supported Pakistan throughout the [FATF] process in terms of guiding the country to improve its frameworks,” the press release quoted the adviser as saying.
The FATF plenary and working group meetings started in Paris, France on Monday and are set to conclude today. A delegation headed by Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Hammad Azhar is representing Pakistan at the meetings.
Placement on grey list
Pakistan was placed on the FATF grey list in June 2018 and was given a plan of action to complete by October 2019 or face the risk of being placed on the blacklist along with Iran and North Korea.
In October 2019, the FATF decided to keep Pakistan on its grey list till February, giving it time to implement a 27-point action plan.
The task force directed Islamabad to take more measures for complete elimination of terror financing and money laundering while expressing serious concerns over the lack of progress in addressing terror financing risks.
The FATF met again in January this year in Beijing where Pakistan provided a list of actions taken to implement the action plan.
Ahead of this week’s FATF meetings, government sources on Saturday had said that both the political and security establishment felt confident about pleading Pakistan’s case on the basis of strong measures taken over the past few years while addressing the concerns raised by the FATF.
Just days ahead of the FATF verdict, a senior US diplomat also acknowledged that Islamabad had moved closer to meeting its commitments to combat terrorist financing.
Last Wednesday, an anti-terrorism court in Lahore convicted Jamaatud Dawa leader Hafiz Saeed and his aide Malik Zafar Iqbal in two terrorist financing cases and sentenced them to five-and-a-half years of imprisonment each.
The chief US diplomat for South Asian affairs Alice G. Wells called the sentence “an important step forward” towards meeting Pakistan’s commitment to combat terrorist financing.
