'Diplomatic victory', says Pakistan on FATF's decision to retain it on grey list

Pakistan on Saturday said the Financial Action Task Force's decision of not blacklisting the country and retaining it on its grey list is a "diplomatic victory".

The three-day virtual plenary of the Paris-based global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog concluded on Friday that Pakistan will continue to remain in its 'grey' list till February 2021 as it has failed to fulfil the agency's six key obligations, including failure to take action against two of India's most wanted terrorists -- Maulana Masood Azhar and Hafiz Saeed.

The decision was taken after a thorough review of Pakistan's performance in fulfilling the global commitments and standards on the fight against money laundering and terror financing.

Reacting to the FATF's decision, Industries and Production minister Hammad Azhar, who led the Pakistani delegation to the virtual plenary, said: "Blacklisting Pakistan was now off the table.”

"Yesterday's consensus decision without any voting is our diplomatic victory," he tweeted.

According to FATF president Marcus Pleyer, Pakistan failed to fulfil six of the 27 mandates so far as a result of which the country continues to be in the 'grey' list of the FATF.

"Pakistan needs to do more on checking terror funding, it can't stop now...FATF will send a team for onsite visit once Pakistan complies with the remaining six conditions. Then only a decision will be taken if it comes out of the grey list or not," he said on Friday.

FATF had placed Pakistan on the grey list in June 2018 and asked Islamabad to implement a plan of action to curb money laundering and terror financing by the end of 2019 but the deadline was extended later on due to Covid-19 pandemic.

With Pakistan's continuation in the 'grey list', it is increasingly becoming difficult for the country to get financial aid from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the European Union, thus further enhancing problems for the nation which is in a precarious financial situation.