Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi Saturday questioned the decision of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) of keeping Pakistan on its “increased monitoring list”, widely known as the grey list after the country completed 26 out of the 27 points under the action plan given to it by the financial watchdog.
The FATF, after a five-day plenary meeting, appreciated on Friday Pakistan’s progress and efforts to address items on its country action plan and announced to keep the country on its grey list till it addressed “the one remaining CFT-related item”. It has also handed the government six new anti-money laundering areas to work on.
In response to the FATF announcement, FM Qureshi said, “it is to be determined whether FATF is a political forum or a technical one and whether it is being used to achieve political objectives.”
The foreign minister said that as far as the issue of addressing the FATF’s action plan is concerned, Pakistan has completed work on 26 points and added: “Significant progress has been made on the 27th point and we intend to do more.”
