Return of Pakistan in FATF’s whitelist will boost country’s economy: Hina Khar

PARIS, Oct 21 (NNI): Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar has said FATF has unanimously decided to remove Pakistan from the “list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring and now it has been whitelisted by FATF.
In a news conference in Paris on Friday, she said FATF has welcomed Pakistan’s significant progress in improving our Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism regime. She said it has been recognized that Pakistan has strengthened the effectiveness of its AML and CFT regime and addressed technical deficiencies and commitments of its Action Plans comprising of total 34 action items.
The Minister of State said this truly is a result of a whole-of-country efforts and demonstration of our resolve to improve our domestic systems to counter money laundering and financing of terrorism and bring them at par with the international standards. She said this would not have been possible without complete national consensus across political spectrum.
Hina Rabbani Khar thanked the national leadership for providing strategic direction, confidence and support to all institutions throughout the process to achieve this key national objective. She said the success we have achieved today is indicator of what we can achieve when we work together with sense of purpose and commitment.
The Minister of State said Pakistan is now in a position where we can not only sustain the trajectory of reforms without any international monitoring or pressure but can also share our expertise and resources with our countries in our region and beyond.
Hina Rabbani Khar said Pakistan will continue to enhance its cooperation and partnership with FATF and the wider international community, especially on the issue of Anti Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism. She said Pakistan has come a long way in improving our domestic AML and CFT framework and bringing it at par with the global standards.
The Minister of State expressed the confidence that Pakistan’s exit from the FATF’s Grey List would give a much-needed boost to our economy and increase our economic and financial engagement with the outside world.
Earlier, the Financial Action Task Force has announced to formally remove Pakistan from its grey list. This was announced by FATF President T Raja Kumar in Paris on Friday.
He said Pakistan had been on the grey list since 2018 and after a lot of work by the Pakistani authorities, they completed a combined 34 action items to address deficiencies in the anti-money laundering and counterterrorism financing systems.
Raja Kumar said FATF welcomes this significant progress as a result Pakistan can now more effectively tackle anti-money laundering and terror financing.
He said an FATF team has verified that the reforms are in place and that there is a high-level of commitment and capacity to sustain those reforms. He said these reforms are good for the stability of the country and the region.
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar has said that Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has unanimously decided to remove Pakistan from the “list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring”. She said that all the FATF members said that whatever Pakistan has achieved during the last four years is unprecedented. She said that all FATF members unanimously decided to remove Pakistan from the grey list.