J K News Today Edit
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global watchdog on terror financing and money laundering, on Friday announced its decision to remove Pakistan from its grey list . It is going to be a big relief to Pakistan which is struggling to cope with the economic crisis and political instability for the past so many years , but the moot question remains will it help Pakistan to improve its credentials as a nation that doesn’t export terrorism from its soil to bleed its neighbours , particularly India .
It seems that the FATF has gone b some of the cosmetic measures that Islamabad had taken by taking into custody some of the terror leaders , including Hafiz Saeed, founder of the Lashkar-e-Toiba group , which is responsible for massacres and huge number of killings in India, and especially in Jammu and Kashmir..
FATF should have drawn a difference between optics and the reality . Perhaps FATF has not paid that much attention to differentiate between the two prisms.
A statement released by FATF on Friday evening said: “Pakistan is no longer subject to FATF’s increased monitoring process; to continue to work with APG (Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering) to further improve its AML/CFT (anti-money laundering & counter-terrorist financing) system.” It was also stated that “Pakistan’s “strengthened effectiveness of its AML/CFT regime and addressed technical deficiencies to meet commitments of its action plans regarding strategic deficiencies that FATF identified”.
This news was greeted with jubilation in Pakistan , where it would mean that it can get foreign aid to overcome the economic crisis that have hit Pakistan in the recent years.
But now the ball is in court of FATF to ensure that it behaves like a responsible nation , going by its previous record the chances are dim.
