Pakistan better be in grey list of FATF

It is remarkable that Pakistan managed to retain its name in the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) of the United Nations Security Council with its penchant for encouraging financial terrorism by various terror outfits on its soil.

Remarkable because nothing else should have mattered to Pakistan than wriggling out of the financial crisis. Yet, its romance with terror is so strong and its need so dire that it defies international opinion and instead, tries to play a victim citing "70,000 victims in the war against terror".

Even lunacy has a limit. It should know that getting consistent blows from FATF despite China being its chair and Turkey and Malaysia strongly supporting it is not a coincidence.

If the country does not get out the grey list, it would automatically slip into the blacklist which would choke it completely. Some in Pakistan feel that the financial war against the country is nothing but a hybrid war model launched by the USA and India as their joint venture to shatter the country's economy.

Senator Rehman Malik of Pakistan is more vocal about it. Though he is a critic of Pakistani establishment over its failure to get out of the FATF, he attributes the failure more to India and the US. Now that is a strange action. When FATF considers placing someone in a danger zone, it only considers certain parameters set by it for scrutiny.

If the responding country does not fulfil the stipulations, it is ruthlessly placed in grey or blacklist. Pakistan failed in convincing the FATF that it has acted right and in required manner this time around too and despite China's vehement opposition, it remained in the grey list.

Trying to bank on the so-called conviction of Hafiz Sayeed in its lower court did not help it much. (In fact it is already being discussed in the country as to how soon he would be set free by a higher court once the country gets out of the grey list).

Again, to say that he is not free today is also wrong. Sayeed enjoys absolute authority even in his detention centre and runs his terror empire smoothly. It is well known that he meets 'his people' often and runs the show from the 'prison'.

The retention of Pakistan in the grey list is a big jolt to its already fragile economy. Moreover, it has exposed its poor foreign policy and also has raised questions over the miserable failure of its reported efforts of backchannel diplomacy with India and the USA within Pakistan. But, when did it resort to such a diplomacy with India as claimed by some Pakistanis?

Rehman Malik some time back (soon after the 2019 Indian elections) had gone ahead to ask some of the former diplomats who suggested such backdoor channels an explanation.

"They need to tell what made them believe in compiling a report to assure the government and the institutions that re-election of Narendra Modi would benefit Pakistan in any way.

Let's not talk about what his re-election meant for the people of Kashmir. One cannot stand the stupidity of such analysts," he added then.

Shall we call this mischief if any? Pakistan aided and abetted the campaign of the Opposition in India against Narendra Modi and did not for once welcome Modi's win. It never would. The only time it welcomed Modi's second term was in fact to add fuel to the Opposition argument in India.

If Malik is right in his criticism that India's RAW played three tricks in which his country's "backchannel operators were used and the main members still have their relatives in India and their think tanks are getting huge funds & running these intuitions at the cost of national humiliation", it is time India wakes up to these think-tanks operating within its soil.

It should also investigate who is funding such organisations or people. Why would anyone in India should fund any organisation which works for Pakistanis' benefit?

It is a convenient argument by all means. To say that India and USA ditched Pakistan together rather than accepting its own criminal and terror intentions behind its failure to contain terror and its funding that sprout from its soil goes to prove its holy cow attitude. A country which refuses to accept that it harbours terror and is rather a victim of the same would never act against it.

Look at the Pakistani argument here: "The FATF decision of retaining Pakistan in the grey list shows total disrespect to the country which has sacrificed 70,000 lives in the "War on Terror". The FATF's decision is highly condemnable.

Factually all the Jihadi organisations in question by FATF are the by-products of the War on Terror that Pakistan fought side by side with the US.

If we go back, then the history of these organisations' growth lies in the American proxy war against the USSR in Afghanistan. Pakistan decided to fight these organisations under my orders when I (Rehman Malik) was Interior Minister for the PPP."

Here Malik himself admits that terror groups which were by-products of some historical events continue to exist in Pakistan. What a sham of a confession it is to say that the groups were acting against Pakistan!

If any they acted against minorities in the country. They acted against India and in Kashmir and developed and aided terror modules in India with their training and funding.

It is good to note that Pakistan remains in the grey list despite China!