ISLAMABAD: All praise for Hammad Azhar – a former minister who had led the Pakistan team at the FATF during the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, former prime minister Imran Khan on Friday expressed confidence that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)’s on-site visit would also be a success.
In a tweet, Khan lauded Azhar, saying the former energy minister, members of his FATF coordination committee and relevant officers had “performed exceptionally well”.
“The whole country is proud of you,” he added.
The members of the former prime minister Imran Khan’s cabinet hailed the FATF’s announcement that Pakistan had met all 34 items on two separate action plans.
Soon after the development, former prime minister Imran Khan said “FATF repeatedly praised the work and political will my government demonstrated”.
He said when his government came to power in 2018, it faced the “direct prospect of blacklisting” by the body, adding that the country’s compliance history with the FATF was also not favourable.
“I constituted a FATF coordination committee headed by key minister Hammad Azhar. The committee had representation from all government departments and security agencies relevant to our FATF action plan. The officers worked day and night in the first instance to avoid blacklisting,” he tweeted.
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The FATF repeatedly praised the work and the political will my government demonstrated, he said, adding “we not only averted blacklisting, but also completed 32 out of 34 action items”.
“We submitted a compliance report on the remaining two items in April based on which FATF now declared Pakistan’s Action Plan as completed,” he added.
Azhar, who was the former energy minister and also the government’s top coordinator for efforts on anti-money laundering and counter-terror financing, shared a picture of himself standing with officers, saying that Pakistan’s hard work on completing the 34-action items was a result of the “teamwork of officers that worked day and night in different government departments. They are the real heroes”.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022