The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a body that leads global action to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, has taken Pakistan off its ‘grey list’, four years after putting the country on a list of nations under increased monitoring. Pakistan has strengthened the effectiveness of its AML/CFT (Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism) regime and addressed technical deficiencies to meet the commitments of its action plans regarding strategic deficiencies that the FATF identified in June 2018 and June 2021, the group said at the end of its two-day plenary in Paris. Pakistan was placed on the grey list in June 2018 for deficiencies in its system to curb money laundering and terror financing. It was first given a 27-point action plan and later another 7-point plan to comply with FATF’s standards. Pakistani PM Shehbaz Sharif congratulated “our civil & military leadership as well as all institutions whose hard work led” to the country getting rid of the ignominy.
