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Pakistan asks Financial Action Task Force to remove India from key panel

Pakistan has conveyed its concerns to President Marshall Billingslea through a letter sent by Asad Umar, Pakistan’s Finance Minister, media reports from Pakistan said.

Pakistan asks Financial Action Task Force to remove India from key panel

Representational Image: Facebook/@KFEPvtLtd

Pakistan has asked the President of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to remove India as co-chair of the Asia-Pacific Joint Group, a regional associate of FATF, fearing that New Delhi’s presence on the panel could hurt its prospects of earning a reprieve from the global terror financing watchdog.

Pakistan, which is presently on the FATF’s “grey list”, has been desperately trying to avoid being black-listed by the Paris-based global terror financing watchdog. The blacklisting will add to the growing financial woes of Pakistan which is already grappling with an unprecedented economic crisis.

Pakistan has conveyed its concerns to President Marshall Billingslea through a letter sent by Asad Umar, Pakistan’s Finance Minister, media reports from Pakistan said.

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In June 2018, the FATF had placed Islamabad on its “grey list”. The move means the country will remain under direct FATF scrutiny until it gets satisfied by the measures taken to weed out terror financing and money laundering.

Last month, the FATF called on Islamabad to move quickly in implementing its action plan to address its strategic deficiencies until May 2019.

“India’s animosity towards Pakistan is well known and the recent violation of Pakistan’s airspace and dropping of bombs inside Pakistani territory are another manifestation of India’s hostile attitude,” Umar said in his letter.

“We firmly believe that India’s involvement in the ICRG (FATF’s International Co-operation Review Group) process will not be fair towards Pakistan,” he stated further.

The minister assured the FATF president that his country remained firm in its commitment to work with FATF and ICRG to implement the action plan.

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