Asia-Pacific Group keeps Pakistan on enhanced follow-up list

[MenInG]

ISLAMABAD: The Asia-Pacific Group (APG) on Money Laundering has retained Pakistan on its “Enhanced Follow-Up” list for a meagre progress on technical recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to fight money laundering and terror financing.

The first Follow-Up Report (FUR) on Mutual Evaluation of Pakistan released by APG — a regional affiliate of the Paris-based FATF — showed Pakistan improving its full compliance on two of the 40 FATF recommendations on the effectiveness of anti-money laundering and combating financing terror (AML/CFT) system.

It was compliant on one item exactly a year ago. Pakistan’s progress largely remained unchanged – non-compliant on four counts, partially compliant on 25 counts and largely compliant on nine recommendations.

“Pakistan will remain in enhanced (expedited) follow up, and will continue to report back to the APG on progress to strengthen its implementation of AML/CFT measures,” concluded the APG in its 12-page report.

Overall Pakistan has made some progress in addressing the technical compliance deficiencies, identified in its mutual evaluation report and has been re-rated on one recommendation.

FATF’s affiliate understands country has made robust progress on 27 action points, including legislation in 15 areas

Based on this progress, Recommendation-29 has been re-rated to ‘compliant’. This improvement is based on amended Income Tax Ordinance 2001 (section 216) which now allows Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU) to have access to tax records and information maintained by Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). Also, the provincial counterterrorism departments (CTD) have been designated as investigation and prosecution agencies under AML Act. This would allow the FMU to disseminate information to the CTD without a court order.

The report noted that measures had been taken on Recommendation-1 pertaining to vulnerability of the national savings, Pakistan Post and real estate dealers to money laundering and terror financing, but said the progress “is not yet sufficient to justify a re-rating”. It also said the analysis and rating for Recommendation-6 were subject to a “major disagreement and consistent with APG procedures” had been referred for ‘in-session discussion at the next APG plenary” and hence not considered for this report. This pertains to targeted financial sanctions related to terrorism and terrorist financing.

In the Mutual Evaluation Report, published in October 2019, Pakistan was compliant on one, non-compliant on four, partially compliant on 26 and largely compliant on nine recommendations. The only change over the last one year has been graduation on one partially compliant recommendation to compliant status.






Pakistan had requested for re-ratings on three areas declared partially compliant by the APG in October last year. The request was accepted on one count and rejected on two due to ‘insufficient’ progress to the satisfaction of international experts.

While the APG report has come only a couple weeks before FATF’s virtual review meeting, scheduled to be held from October 21 to 23, it has no immediate bearing on the upcoming assessment of Pakistan whether it should be retained or moved out of the grey list. The APG’s performance review is based on the country’s performance as of February this year on technical recommendations. The country in recent months is understood to have made robust progress on 27 action points, including necessary legislation in 15 areas.

The 41-member APG had adopted the third Mutual Evaluation Report on Pakistan during the August 13-18 meetings in Canberra, Australia and downgraded the country to “Enhanced Follow-up” category over technical deficiencies to meet normal international financial standards by October 2018. As a result, Pakistan has since been required to submit quarterly progress reports, instead of biannual, to the APG, to show improvements in its technical standards on AML/CFT.

The report said Pakistan had taken a number of steps to more comprehensively identify and assess the money laundering and terror financing risks by conducting a Terrorist Financing Risk Assessment (TFRA) and a sectoral risk assessment on cash smuggling. This will be upgraded every two years. Finally, in November 2019, Pakistan issued a confidential paper on transnational terror financing threat profiles of key terrorist organisations. However, the risk assessments associated with Designated Non-Financial Business and Professions (DNFBPs) as well as legal persons and legal arrangements are still very general in nature and appear to be based on limited data.

ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER AD

The report also noted that Pakistan authorities considered 12 terrorist organisations, including eight UN-designated entities of concern (EOCs), for threat profiles but only in terms of inflows and not outflow of funds to support terrorist activities. It said the NRA 2019 confirmed that abuse of non-profit organisations for terror financing purposes continued to pose a significant threat both domestically and externally and that charities and fund-raising was a source of funds for almost all EOCs. Also, it noted, terrorist organisations were known to use non-profit organisations, including registered charities e.g Falah-i-Insanyat Foundation (FIF) was a registered NPO, established by associates of Lashkar-i-Taiba.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2020

 

[the Great Khan]

the new pressler amendment..

 

[MenInG]

Well IK and gov have to do something about this or it will snowball out of control.

 

[Napa]

Well IK and gov have to do something about this or it will snowball out of control.

If they stopped giving arms to the Haqqani network that kills US soldiers, and stopped supporting other "ISI assets" aka Afghani Taliban, you can bet they would be out of all FATF lists in a jiffy.

 

[KingKhanWC]

If they stopped giving arms to the Haqqani network that kills US soldiers, and stopped supporting other "ISI assets" aka Afghani Taliban, you can bet they would be out of all FATF lists in a jiffy.

US are on the way out, the last troops will leave with their tail behind their legs in a few months.

Security of the nation overrules everything anyway.

 

[Bigboii]

If they stopped giving arms to the Haqqani network that kills US soldiers, and stopped supporting other "ISI assets" aka Afghani Taliban, you can bet they would be out of all FATF lists in a jiffy.

Pak is a warrior nation doing dank s*** * is second nature to us, people killing each other for 5 rupee notes and other stupid stuff is normal in our rural areas (represents majority of Pakistan especially the Pakistan army who control the foreign policy)

but its hard for Indians, Americans who are naturally business like borderline timid people to understand our Psychology as people

we can live in absolute poverty but we'll continue to do stuff that seems "stupid" to outside world cause they don't live with our people, they don't know the psychology of the people ...

honest observation

 

[Bigboii]

US are on the way out, the last troops will leave with their tail behind their legs in a few months.

Security of the nation overrules everything anyway.

like I said [MENTION=142162]Napa[/MENTION] this post represents our mentality

national security, sovereignty trumps money, living standards and when people from the outside world look at us they think we are stupid but that's the mentality of warrior nations/people...

 

[KingKhanWC]

like I said [MENTION=142162]Napa[/MENTION] this post represents our mentality

national security, sovereignty trumps money, living standards and when people from the outside world look at us they think we are stupid but that's the mentality of warrior nations/people...

What I meant was security has to come first and the rest follows.

Pakistan is a civilised nation, 99% of the 200 million dont even indugle in serious violence. In Pakistan most men cant even throw a straight right, they slap each other. The problem is Pakistan has been attacked again and again since it's creation so had to use various tactics to survive. Now once the the state terrorists of America leave pretty much defeated, Pakistan can secure Afghanistan, kick out the Indians who have been supporting cross border terrorism to become economically stronger.

Pakistan maybe on certain lists but the time has come to grow stonger in every way.

 

[Bigboii]

What I meant was security has to come first and the rest follows.

Pakistan is a civilised nation, 99% of the 200 million dont even indugle in serious violence. In Pakistan most men cant even throw a straight right, they slap each other. The problem is Pakistan has been attacked again and again since it's creation so had to use various tactics to survive. Now once the the state terrorists of America leave pretty much defeated, Pakistan can secure Afghanistan, kick out the Indians who have been supporting cross border terrorism to become economically stronger.

Pakistan maybe on certain lists but the time has come to grow stonger in every way.

not sure about that every other guy in rural areas is running from murder or other serious charges
Violance is extremely common in our rural areas only in cities you have to behave (and that too not in smaller cities)

read "Pakistan: A Hard Country" (also [MENTION=142162]Napa[/MENTION] cause you always seem to complain why Pakistan behave the way it does) author breaks down the history of the country, its people and how violence and threat of violence is used to create order in the society and use it understand this organized chaos

US will go just like Soviets went but this "chullbaazi" of supporting foreign organizations will never end hell even if we have peace with India we'll find another organization to support and fund don't think this will end this is how theological, ideological nations operate

Israel, Iran, Pakistan, NK will forever create problems because of the "fabric" of the system they are operating with doesn't allow them to stop the fight to accept superiority of any other country

Pakistan Army/nation operates on this Quote from George Danton

"De l'audace, et encore de l'audace, et toujours de l'audace,
et la France est sauvee."

"Boldness, more boldness, and always boldness, and France is saved"
(just replace France with Pakistan)

This is the thinking of the country only way to save Pakistan is to be bold and go to the enemies land among their people and hurt them on their own land cause if you give them an inch of space they'll eat Pakistan alive

 

[KingKhanWC]

not sure about that every other guy in rural areas is running from murder or other serious charges
Violance is extremely common in our rural areas only in cities you have to behave (and that too not in smaller cities)

read "Pakistan: A Hard Country" (also [MENTION=142162]Napa[/MENTION] cause you always seem to complain why Pakistan behave the way it does) author breaks down the history of the country, its people and how violence and threat of violence is used to create order in the society and use it understand this organized chaos

US will go just like Soviets went but this "chullbaazi" of supporting foreign organizations will never end hell even if we have peace with India we'll find another organization to support and fund don't think this will end this is how theological, ideological nations operate

Israel, Iran, Pakistan, NK will forever create problems because of the "fabric" of the system they are operating with doesn't allow them to stop the fight to accept superiority of any other country

Pakistan Army/nation operates on this Quote from George Danton

"De l'audace, et encore de l'audace, et toujours de l'audace,
et la France est sauvee."

"Boldness, more boldness, and always boldness, and France is saved"
(just replace France with Pakistan)

This is the thinking of the country only way to save Pakistan is to be bold and go to the enemies land among their people and hurt them on their own land cause if you give them an inch of space they'll eat Pakistan alive

They might not how to fist fight but certainly know how to pull a trigger. Its one of the reasons why no nation can occupy Pakistan, for every 5 people around 2 have a firearm of some sorts. Interesting with so many guns, you still dont see people gunning down others randomly or in schools as you see in the US.

There are theories Pakistan wanted US in Afghanistan to weaken it and embarrass it and the Yanks fell for it. Of course its come at high cost to Pakistan and Im not sure of this theory at all but another superpower on its way out defeated. Yanks will claim they made a deal so it's not a loss but the Taliban in Afghanistan have pulled off one of the greatest victories of any resistance for in history. Over 40 of the worlds most powerful nations landed in 2001 but at no time did they control most of the country. Of course Pakistan had a big hand in this, the Taliban were given intelligence reguarly which is why they were able to pull of huge number of deaths to occupying troops.

These lists will come and go, nobody dare try to bankrupt Pakistan as this will lead to serious problems for the world.

 

[Syed1]

FATF is just a tool for the West to arm twist weaker nations. Who doesn't know how places like UK and Switzerland are hub for money laundering yet they have no FATF restrictions. Heck the biggest indictment against FATF is that the black list has two countries Iran and North Korea. Both of whom rub the west the wrong way.

NK barely has any economy how can it be on a blacklist of money laundering?

 

[Napa]

Pak is a warrior nation doing dank s*** * is second nature to us, people killing each other for 5 rupee notes and other stupid stuff is normal in our rural areas (represents majority of Pakistan especially the Pakistan army who control the foreign policy)

but its hard for Indians, Americans who are naturally business like borderline timid people to understand our Psychology as people

we can live in absolute poverty but we'll continue to do stuff that seems "stupid" to outside world cause they don't live with our people, they don't know the psychology of the people ...

honest observation

So your world is divided into people who kill each other for Rs. 5, and people who are timid.

There could be another kind of people, who are not timid but prefer to spend their lives building stuff instead of killing each other.

 

[Napa]

US are on the way out, the last troops will leave with their tail behind their legs in a few months.

Security of the nation overrules everything anyway.

If your Pakistani leadership thinks like you do, they are going to spend a long time on FATF lists. You can either cooperate with the US and stop giving arms to those who kill their soldiers (which will keep you on the FATF lists), or you can choose to grow your economy by linking it to the global economy by putting an end to supporting terrorists. You cannot have both.

 

[Bigboii]

So your world is divided into people who kill each other for Rs. 5, and people who are timid.

There could be another kind of people, who are not timid but prefer to spend their lives building stuff instead of killing each other.

nope let me explain in essence what I meant is Pakistan and (its history) suggests that the country does not compromise on "national security" and they'll continue to be that way because that's the way the country is set up/operated as

but most other countries compromise and see value in working with people regardless of differences and while doing this they can compromise on certain things like not getting involve in supporting insurgencies (for example India, China are enemies but they don't interfere in each others insurgencies cause they know this is a deal breaker and war/lack of trade would lead to decrease in living standards) but for Pakistan supporting insurgencies is part of their national security like I explained before in the other post

Pakistan Army/nation operates on this Quote from George Danton

"De l'audace, et encore de l'audace, et toujours de l'audace,
et la France est sauvee."

"Boldness, more boldness, and always boldness, and France is saved"
(just replace France with Pakistan)

This is the thinking of the country only way to save Pakistan is to be bold and go to the enemies land among their people and hurt them on their own land cause if you give them an inch of space they'll eat Pakistan alive

Now we know that this insurgency is part of military's strategy to counter threats against its existence so when you say Pakistan stop doing the insurgency and covert support I say they cant do that its part of their national security

Now average person thinks that all these insurgencies are part of "national security" than he is willing to make sacrifices in his living standards, money he/she makes cause nation comes first and this is kind of like "siege mentality" where you are willing to make sacrifices because you are defensive towards the other side

This is the reason why most Pakistani people will never back out or support the stopping insurgencies (Bhutto is still cursed for stopping the Khalistan Insurgency by giving them names of the terrorist/freedom fighters)

Normal people would definitely love to "prefer to spend their lives building stuff instead of killing each other."

But the country is not living under normal circumstances they're under siege mentality where much bigger power is next door knocking and trying to takeover (at least in the Pakistani mindset)

So normal behavior cannot expected from the GOP, its people or military's

 

[saeedhk]

Well IK and gov have to do something about this or it will snowball out of control.

Stop arming non-state actors and stop nurturing terror outfits. Simple.

 

[KingKhanWC]

If your Pakistani leadership thinks like you do, they are going to spend a long time on FATF lists. You can either cooperate with the US and stop giving arms to those who kill their soldiers (which will keep you on the FATF lists), or you can choose to grow your economy by linking it to the global economy by putting an end to supporting terrorists. You cannot have both.

Please read again.

US is on the way out, Pak wont need to help them back to America in bags. Pak didnt do anything wrong by supporting people under occupation and at the same time played the Yanks for what they needed. ITs a beautiful thing

 

[MenInG]

UK hopes excellent FATF report for progress on key benchmarks

ISLAMABAD: The United Kingdom hopes Pakistan would get an excellent performance report from the FATF in the upcoming plenary next week for making substantial progress on key benchmarks.

Speaking exclusively to The News in his first newspaper interview since arriving in Islamabad as the British High Commissioner last December, Dr Christian Turner CMG said he was absolutely clear that Pakistan had taken incredibly seriously the need to sort out its terrorist financing regulations. “As I engage with the system here, I see a huge effort going on across the system. That momentum needs to be continued and maintained. On FATF, I think the trajectory is very positive and Pakistan shall be commended for coming this far and shall be supported in going further.”

Laying down his priorities as Her Majesty’s government’s envoy to Pakistan, Dr Turner said Pakistan’s international perception needed to change from a country in trouble to a destination safe and secure to visit and cherish. He says he is ready to play his part through promoting UK-Pak Dosti initiative and sounded confident to take the effort to new heights.

“The very first outdated stereotype that I came up against was security advisory. As my last job was as security advisor [to British prime minister], I am well versed in this stuff. In security, I cannot think of another country in the world that has made progress as Pakistan has since 2015. So we reviewed the [travel] advisory as per the changed realities.”

In his efforts to improve the existing perception of Pakistan and enhance economic opportunities, the high commissioner listed the revised and relaxed travel advisory, resumption and expanding of British Airways operations between Britain and Pakistan and starting of 11 weekly flights by Virgin Atlantic Airways between London Heathrow and Manchester to Lahore and Islamabad from December 2020.

Responding to a question if the revamped diplomatic vigour is genuinely springing in the Whitehall for Pakistan or actually necessitated by the post-Brexit scenarios for Britain, Dr Turner said that Asia Pacific, that includes Pakistan, would be a very important part of UK’s post-Brexit strategy. “As part of Europe, we are naturally closer to European countries but one of the major reasons behind Brexit decision and democratic will of the British people was to look for ties expanded elsewhere in the world. We are currently going through a post-Brexit strategy review that would be published next month. Our prime minister is quite clear that it would inevitably include deeper relationships in Asia Pacific.”

Expanding on Pakistan’s status as UK’s strategic partner, the high commissioner gave an example of the royal visit to Pakistan in 2019. He said it showcased Pakistan not only in Britain but also in the world. “The royal highnesses first have a discussion with the government about where should they visit. And I believe that the decision was made quite correctly. Our embassy in Pakistan is the largest British embassy in the world and there was no royal visit to Pakistan since 2007,” he remarked while describing the process undertaken to suggest a country for royal visit.

When his attention was drawn to widely present perception among Pakistani public that London houses Pakistani political leaders that are declared 'criminals' by Pakistani courts, Dr Turner said that as per British law, he could not comment on individual cases. “But I want to make it clear that UK government doesn’t shelter or harbor any individual. As a sovereign country, we are not interested in interfering in domestic politics of any other country. UK laws are very clear about what the government can and can’t do in immigration matters. And we deal with these cases absolutely by our rules. Final point is that UK and Pakistan do not currently have an extradition treaty. We have been discussing one with Pakistan.”

About the image of London as a “haven for looted money,” he said this criticism historically came about for a reason that London remains one of the global centers of finance. “The last two governments in UK have really worked hard to address this perception. We now have new legislation, proposals and regulation on how firms in the City of London operate account of money.”

Citing the example of Unexplained Wealth Laws, he said: “Now the banks can cease the whole bunch of cash been transferred, it can put a freeze on it and say this is unexplained wealth until you can tell how you got hold of this.”

Since 2015, Britain is bound by law to spend 0.7 per cent of its GDP on foreign aid. Pakistan is among the top five countries that receive this aid. A British magazine recently wrote that about 15 per cent of this foreign aid was spent on humanitarian aid, or crisis relief, with the rest focused on strategic or long-term goals. “It is used to vaccinate children from preventable diseases, enabling them to go to school, while helping people work their way out of poverty, providing food, nutrition and medical care are also key goals.”

But is UK concerned about donating taxpayers’ money to a country that constantly presents bleak figures in the yearly reports by global financial institutions? Doesn’t British public raise a storm about it? The high commissioner was very firm and clear in his response. He believes that Pakistan’s economic management is good despite the extraordinary difficult global context. He appreciated the government’s COVID-19 management policy and said that they are having exactly the same debate of balancing the lives and livelihoods going on in UK. “Simultaneously, some IMF reforms can’t be avoided. We all know about the deep structural issues that need to be addressed and it is the leadership that provides basis for the growth to take off.”

An avid trekker, Dr Turner has been travelling to the northern parts of Pakistan. He has posted pictures of his recent visit to Gilgit-Baltistan along with the Canadian High Commissioner Wendy Gilmour on Twitter. Sharing his experience, he said that with tremendous natural beauty and improved security situation, the opportunity for tourism in Pakistan is extraordinary. To take it forward, he suggested good marketing strategy, targeted choices for tourists and need to build service infrastructure. He expressed special concern over the garbage he observed around tourist sites. He spoke about the need to educate the people as to how they need to take care of this immense natural asset.

Highlighting some other priority areas, he talked about UK support for girl education and tackling the impact of climate change. “The British government has decided a 20 per cent increase in student visas. We have supported nearly 8 million girls to attend primary and secondary school in Pakistan in the past 4 to 5 years.”

A staunch believer of developing institutional linkages, Dr Turner said a visit of a delegation of vice chancellors from Pakistan was planned for April this year that got postponed due to COVID-19. “But beneath all these efforts, there is a solid base of Pakistani students going to UK and we want to see an increase of 20 per cent in future,” he said terming the UK flagship Chevening scholarships as ‘cherry on the top.’ “Under this program, we have given 53 scholarships this year that has doubled over the last five years with 60 per cent women awardees.”

How can you talk to a British high commissioner for over 90 minutes and not discuss cricket. About the possibility of England touring Pakistan, he said that Marylebone Cricket Club’s successful tour of Pakistan in February and Pakistan’s tour to England in April were evidence of exciting future cricket activity for both countries. “The ECB has already confirmed the intent of a tour but the schedule is pending due to COVID.”

He said that freedom of expression was another policy priority for UK. He said he kept a regular touch with the media and journalists and was aware of their feelings regarding the prevalent circumstances. Without dilating on particular cases, the high commissioner said he regularly discussed with Pakistani officials what he heard from the professionals.

Dr Turner talked about the UK support for locust control and said that 60 sprayers were flown to Pakistan from UK to tackle the emergency. Saying that Pakistan must address the issues relating to climate change, he added that UK was investing 13 million pounds mainly on low carbon investment, nature based solutions and green financing.

Responding to a question regarding the role UK could play in toning down Pakistan-India relations, he commented that South Asia was currently the least connected region in the world. “Economic growth is only way to a secure and prosperous future which cannot be achieved without peaceful coexistence and non-interference.” He said millions of young people are entering the job market every year in Pakistan and creation of employment would not be possible without opening the region and connecting with the neighbours.

He said that British government had no problem with China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). “If China is bringing significant infrastructure investment in this country and if that investment is done in the right way like abiding by the low carbon standards, transferring skills and knowledge, not burdening Pakistan with unnecessary debts and protecting worker’s rights, there is no reason for British government to have any objection. It will in fact also benefit British business.”

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/73...nt-fatf-report-for-progress-on-key-benchmarks