Pakistan, by all means, remains home for terror

The Asia Pacific Group (APG) on Money Laundering, the regional affiliate of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), in its latest report warned Pakistan against its non-compliance of the FATF regulations.

This should come as a sufficient warning to the otherwise complacent Pakistani leadership which keeps banking on the support of Turkey, Malaysia and China at the UN Security Council's next meet, because the six-member team that comprised the APG team which visited Pakistan included those from China and Turkey.

The report clearly stated that Pakistan had failed to take enough action to stop terror financing by the country. The report was adopted by the APG in September but was released this week.

With Pakistan achieving "significant deficiencies" on both "effectiveness ratings" and "technical compliance ratings", the chances of Pakistan being put on the "black-list" may have increased.

The FATF had placed Pakistan on its "grey list" in June 2018, giving the country a 15-month deadline to implement its 27-point action plan, a deadline which ended last month.

The final review of Pakistan will likely be taken up at the next meeting of the FATF in Paris between 13 and 18 October. Much depends on the outcome of this meeting.

China and Turkey might work together to save Pakistan from collapse as both have their economic interests there. China, for one, has poured billions of dollars into Pakistan in its CPEC and is already wary of the returns.

However, Pakistan does not seem to care or bother about its friends too. The reason for Pakistan's low rating by the APG is obvious. The country scored 'low' in 10 of the 11 parameters.

The other 10 parameters that constitute "effectiveness ratings" for which Pakistan was given "low" rating are: risk, policy and coordination, supervision, preventive measures, legal persons and arrangements, financial intelligence, investigation and prosecution, confiscation, terror funding investigation and prosecution, terror funding preventive measures and financial sanctions and proliferation financing financial sanctions.

Even when it comes to technical compliance ratings which are based on 40 parameters that reflect the extent to which a country has implemented the same, Pakistan has been "largely compliant" only in nine out of 40.

The APG's report is based on information provided by Pakistan and the field visit undertaken by an assessment team in October last year. The six-member team had experts from China, Indonesia, Maldives, Turkey, United States and the United Kingdom.

In its report, the APG has said that at the time of its visit to Pakistan there were 66 organisations and approximately 7,600 individuals proscribed under its Anti-Terrorism Act, which was brought pursuant to UN Security Council resolution 1373.

Countries supporting Pakistan should read this paragraph: "Terrorist groups operating in Pakistan are reported to include, but not limited to, ISIS-Khorasan, Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, Quetta Shura Taliban, Haqqani Network, and Lashkar-e-Taiba (including its affiliates Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation), which raise funds through a variety of means including direct support, public fund raising, abuse of Non-Profit Organisations (NPOs) and through criminal activities.

Funds are moved via informal (including hawala/hundi) and formal channels and cash smuggling." Pakistan remains what it is - a home of terror.