Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Ishaq Dar on Monday expressed optimism that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), scheduled to hold a Plenary meeting this week, will remove Pakistan from the grey list.
Addressing a press conference, Dar, who is leading Pakistan’s delegation to the IMF- WBG 2022 annual meetings being held in Washington DC, said that the government would address all concerns of the global watchdog if the need arose.
The statement comes as the first FATF Plenary meeting under the two-year Presidency of Singapore is scheduled to take place on October 20-21, 2022.
Delegates representing 206 members of the Global Network and observer organisations, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the United Nations, the World Bank, Interpol and the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units, are expected to participate in the meeting.
“The delegates will discuss key issues including guidance on improving beneficial ownership transparency to prevent shell companies and other opaque structures from being used to launder illicit funds,” read the statement.
In its meeting in June 2022, FATF acknowledged that Pakistan made "significant progress" in strengthening its Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) regime. The watchdog said that it would conduct an on-site visit to the country at the earliest possible date.
Subsequently, a technical team of FATF, comprising counterterrorism experts, concluded its on-site visit of Pakistan last month, which is expected to lead to Pakistan’s exit from its grey list in October’s plenary meeting.
The 15-member delegation visited Pakistan from August 29 to September 5 and held meetings with the country’s leadership, besides getting a briefing from relevant authorities on Pakistan’s implemented reforms.
Meanwhile, the finance minister on Sunday urged the IMF and multilateral donors to provide greater policy support to Pakistan.
Dar made the remarks while addressing a meeting of MENAP (Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan, and Pakistan) ministers of finance and central bank governors with the IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva.
During his address, the finance minister thanked the IMF official for her support and assured Pakistan’s commitment to completing the ongoing programme.
The finance minister also highlighted the humanitarian catastrophe and losses suffered by the country.
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