Washington DC, June 25: Financial Action Task Force (FATF) outgoing president Marshall Billingslea has on Wednesday hinted the possibilities of putting Pakistan on a blacklist of nations for harbouring terrorism, after the financial watchdog’s meeting held in Paris.
According to ANI news reports, during a media briefing, Billingslea said, “Pakistan had ‘significant’ work to do. With regard to an action plan agreed in June 2018, they are ‘lacking in almost every respect’.”
He further added, “Pakistan was cautioned in February at the plenary that they had missed almost all of their January milestones. They were urged to not fail to meet the milestones in May. Unfortunately, Pakistan has yet again missed its May milestones.”
The FATF has lambasted on Islamabad over its “lack” of compliance with a 26-point action plan which was prepared for Pakistan to curb terrorism and end financing terrorists.
He said the action plan itself is slated to complete in September, so this was the plenary where “we examine how far behind Pakistan is on its action plan … I must say they are far behind”.
Also read: FATF tells Pakistan to ‘swiftly’ complete ‘Action Plan’ on terrorism or face consequences
FATF has told Pakistan on Friday to “swiftly” complete its plan to curb terrorism and terror financing by October or prepare to face consequences. The warning was made through an official statement issued by the FATF following a preliminary meeting held in Orlando, Florida.
Pakistan has been named under the “grey list” of nations that have been reportedly inadequate in curing terror financing and money laundering. The nation has already skipped two prior deadlines, in January and May 2019, to complete its action plan.
After being placed under the grey list, the FATF has given Pakistan a 27-point action plan in June last year, with a given deadline January 2019 to comply with it, which Islamabadskipped.
The statement added the FATF strongly urged Islamabad to swiftly complete its action plan by October 2019 when the last set of action plan items were slated to expire, adding, “Otherwise, the FATF will decide the next step at the time for insufficient progress.”