Pakistan has been kept on the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) at its latest summit because, according to its President, while it has made considerable progress in fulfilling the requirements of the international watchdog, it has still to meet three of the 27 points of the Action Plan it gave in June 2018, when the country first went on the FATF grey list. FATF President Michel Pleyer said that Pakistan would still not be blacklisted at that stage, but it would be useful to get off the grey list. That the IMF resumed its EFF package was taken as an indication that FATF would end the greylisting, but that has proved an over-optimistic assessment. However, the failure to get off the grey list indicates two things: that Pakistan has to do more internally to make the country less favourable to terror financing and money laundering, and it has to mount a greater diplomatic effort to achieve its goal.
That FATF has set a fresh deadline is indeed an indication that Pakistan has taken steps to make its systems impossible for terror financing or money laundering, but it also shows that there are further steps to be taken. It should rate as a positive that the steps are to do with implementation, rather than ab initio. The exercise of passing laws with the opposition virtually being arm-twisted into cooperation seems to have helped, but not enough. The diplomatic effort is also crucial. India would like to use this as a tool against Pakistan, and unfortunately, the USA, which should be helping Pakistan, is working with India on this. Pakistan’s friends, like China and Turkey, are not able to do much to persuade even themselves to support Pakistan, let alone help anyone else do so.
The PTI needs to consider its strategy carefully. It has had to handle the issue, which arose just before it took office. It will not achieve anything by having its Foreign Minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, boast of success before FATF meetings, and scramble (as now), for explanations of what went wrong. The government itself has said that the issue is of the greatest importance. It is time it itself treated it that way.
