Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that the Financial Action Task Force could take steps to blacklist the nation owing to “lobbying by India”. Furthermore, the country capital Islamabad would face a whopping $10 billion loss annually if it continues to remain in the greylist.
The inter-governmental body which continues to battle the money laundering, as well as terror financing had last year kept Pakistan in the grey list of countries as the country failed to act in accordance with terms and conditions. It is cognisance of the fact that non-compliant countries face legal action.
“The Foreign Office is calculating the annual loss if Pakistan is pushed in the blacklist by the FATF as India is lobbying for this,” Foreign Minister Qureshi told reporters in Lahore on Monday.
He further added that the government has estimated that Pakistan will face $10 billion loss annually if it remains in the grey list, as reported by Dawn online.
In February, the Paris-based watchdog condemned the dastardly Pulwama terror blast, claimed by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) that killed 40 CRPF paramilitary troopers and said “Pakistan did not have a proper understanding of the terror financing risks posed by the Islamic State, Al Qaeda, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, Falah-e-Insaniat, Lashkar-e-Taiba, JeM, (Haqqani Network) and persons associated with the Taliban.
The watchdog visited Pakistan only last month to examine its progress in acting against the terror groups across the nation. A delegation of the Asia-Pacific Group (APG) on money laundering, which is a regional affiliate of the FATF, said that Pakistan’s capital Islamabad did not take effective measures against eight major outlawed organisations.
The delegation also expressed reservations regarding lack of collaboration among law enforcement agencies and their strategy of taking action against these groups.