ISLAMABAD: Foreign Office (FO) on Monday said that the United Kingdom’s decision to include Pakistan in the list of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing High-Risk Countries was not based on facts.
According to a statement issued by the spokesperson of the Foreign Office, Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri, “Pakistan is close to fully implement FATF Action Plan and has already implemented 24 out of 27 points.”
“The UK would review its regulations in light of facts on the ground and avoid politically motivated and misplaced measures,” the spokesperson hoped.
Chaudhry further said that Pakistan has a robust anti-money laundering, combatting the financing of the terrorism regime in place.
Over the last two years, Pakistan has taken unprecedented measures through a series of legislative, institutional and administrative actions in the domain of anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism, he noted.
These actions, which have also been reported to Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and shared with the European Union, have been widely acknowledged by the international community, the statement added.
On Sunday, the UK had added Pakistan to the list of 21 countries that were part of Schedule 3ZA (High-Risk Countries) under its Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Amendment) (High-Risk Countries) Regulations 2021.
This list of 21 countries — released by the UK Government — replicates the list of countries named by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) as high-risk or under increased monitoring. Pakistan shares the list at number 15 with conflict-ridden countries such as Syria, Uganda, Yemen and Zimbabwe.
Pakistan has been on the FATF’s grey list for deficiencies in its counter-terror financing and anti-money laundering regimes since June 2018.
