ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has made a significant progress to address the FATF challenges, said a statement by Federal Minister for Law and Justice Barrister Dr Muhammad Farogh Naseem on Pakistan’s FATF achievement. At the advent of our government in August 2018, out of 40 recommendations prescribed by the FATF, Pakistan had only complied with about 10 recommendations.

As we stand today, nearly after two and a half years, we have complied with 31 out of 40 of the FATF recommendations.

This was indeed a gigantic task; which Pakistan has achieved.

The FATF evaluation process is two-tiered.

First, it focuses on the legal framework and later its effectiveness/implementation.

In order to ensure irreversibility and sustainability in Pakistan’s AML /CFT efforts, the Ministry of Law and Justice meticulously steered the important task of legal reforms, which not only entailed unending sessions of discussions with all stakeholders, including parliamentarians from the opposition benches, and driving of the legislative business through the Cabinet Committee on Legislative Cases, the Cabinet and then the Parliament.

Pakistan’s exceptional results (achieving 31/40 compliance rating) is reflective of the synergy of legal efforts in the promulgation of 14 legal instruments in the last one year.

Besides these laws, the legal framework has been further strengthened by introduction of rules and procedures by the Law Ministry in consultation with the other divisions.

In the end, I congratulate all Pakistanis and the prime minister for his leadership on this great achievement and express my gratitude above all to the Almighty for bestowing triumph. A national cause was swiftly addressed yet again, it said.—PR

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021