India welcomes grey-listing of Pakistan FATF

India on Saturday welcomed Pakistan being put on the "grey list" by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an inter-governmental body which combats money laundering and terror financing among other things, for failing to curb terror financing on its soil.

"India welcomes the decision of the Financial Action Task Force to place Pakistan in its Compliance Document (Grey list) for ICRG (International Cooperation Review Group) monitoring," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in response to queries.

"Pakistan has given a high level political commitment to address the global concerns regarding its implementation of the FATF standards for countering terror financing and anti-money laundering, especially in respect of UN designated and internationally proscribed terror entities and individuals," Kumar said.

"The freedom and impunity with which the designated terrorists like Hafiz Saeed and entities like Jamaat-ud-Dawa, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed continue to operate in Pakistan is not in keeping with such commitments."

The FATF announcement came on Wednesday at its plenary session in Paris after Islamabad submitted a detailed 26-point action plan to the body to choke funding of militant groups, including Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed-led JuD and its affiliates.

The decision to put Pakistan in the "grey list" was taken in February but then the country was given relief till June to combat the issue.

Pakistan was also included in the list from 2012 to 2015.

Islamabad claims that in compliance with FATF's recommendations, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan issued the Anti Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Regulations on June 20.

Islamabad has been scrambling in recent months to avoid being added to the list of countries deemed non-compliant with anti-money laundering and terrorist financing regulations by FATF, a measure that officials in Pakistan fear could hurt its economy, which is already under strain.

In his statement on Saturday, Kumar said that India hopes that "the FATF action plan shall be complied with in a time bound manner and credible measures would be taken by Pakistan to address global concerns related to terrorism emanating from any territory under its control".

--IANS

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