ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office on Monday said the United Kingdom’s decision to include Pakistan to its list of states that pose financial risks to the country because of anti-money laundering and terrorism financing shortfalls was “not based on facts”.
In March, The Treasury included Pakistan and 20 other countries — including the tax haven Panama — in The Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Amendment) (High-Risk Countries) Regulations, 2021.
Other countries in the list include Albania, Barbados, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cayman Islands, North Korea, Ghana, Iran, Jamaica, Mauritius, Morocco, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Senegal, Syria, Uganda, Yemen and Zimbabwe.
The law came into force on March 26 through an amendment in The Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017.
In his statement, FO spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri expressed the hope that London would “review its regulations in light of facts on ground and avoid politically motivated and misplaced measures”.
“Pakistan has a robust AML/CFT [anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism] regime in place,” he added.
“In particular, over last two years, we have taken unprecedented measures through a series of legislative, institutional and administrative actions in the domain of anti-money laundering and countering [the] financing of terrorism.”
“These actions, which have also been reported to FATF [Financial Action Task Force] and shared with the EU [European Union] have been widely acknowledged by the international community,” Chaudhri observed.
“The near completion of Pakistan’s FATF Action Plan through 24 out of 27 Action Items is a testament to Pakistan’s commitment and tangible actions in AML/CFT domain.”
In February, FATF President Marcus Pleyer said Islamabad had made “significant progress” but there remained “serious deficiencies” in mechanisms to plug money laundering and terrorism financing.
FATF had placed Pakistan on its “grey list” of countries with inadequate controls over terrorism financing in 2018, which made foreign firms more cautious about investing in Pakistan.
Keep barking Terrorist
Pakistan is a terrorist sponsoring country
The world knows Pakistan for what it is. You can fool your own people, but you can’t fool the world.