ISLAMABAD ( Web News)
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar said on Saturday that Pakistan’s positive and speedy progress was greatly appreciated and welcomed by Financial Action Task Force (FATF) members.
State Minister for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar addressed a press conference on Saturday following an announcement by the FATF that Pakistan has “substantially completed its two action plans” and would be removed from the grey list after it passes the on-site visit to assess the implementation of Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism.
The state minister, during the press briefing, said that the outcome was enabled through “the comprehensive reforms that have been carried out in Pakistan in the Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML-CFT) domain and the sustained momentum of our efforts and the results of those efforts”.
“Because as you can see, the first action plan took us much longer while this one was completed before the set timeline and this was something which was very well recognized throughout the plenary by all the members,” she said.
“The successful completion of the FATF action plan and its formal endorsement by the [watchdog] means that Pakistan is one step away from exiting the grey list, InshaAllah,” she added.
“FATF has now authorized an on-site visit of its technical team to Pakistan to validate the process of the implementation of the reforms,” she said.
“It marks the beginning of the end process that will eventually culminate in the exit of Pakistan from the FATF’s grey list, InshaAllah and hopefully forever,” she said.
Regarding the dates of the on-site evaluation, Khar said that the authorities concerned are closely working with the FATF to arrange their team’s visit at “mutually convenient dates” with a view to conclude the entire process before the October plenary.