Pak Delegation To Leave For Paris to attain FATF Meeting

A high-powered Pakistani delegation, headed by caretaker Finance Minister Dr Shamshad Akhtar, will leave for Paris today to attend the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meeting starting from June 24.

Finance Ministry officials said that Pakistan had already fulfilled few demands of FATF. They said that the delegation will seek time to fulfil all the demands. Pakistan will brief about its action which the government passed through Finance Bill 2018 with the approval of the Parliament for taxing foreign jurisdictions and helping the country to curb money laundering under mutual assistance agreement with OECD and other bilateral countries.The purpose of the plenary meeting is to ensure the adoption, implementation and enforcement of internationally accepted anti-money laundering and counterterrorist financing standards as set out in the FATF Forty Recommendations and FATF Eight Special Recommendations.

The FATF meeting is scheduled to be held at Paris by end of this month from June 24 to 29, 2018 and Islamabad is making all-out efforts to avoid further downgrading having far-reaching repercussions for the economy.In a bid to foil this move, the newly stalled Federal Minister for Finance Dr Shamshad Akhtar on Wednesday directed all authorities concerned to fill required existing gaps on administrative and legal fronts before attending this scheduled meeting.

“Yes, the Minister for Finance Dr Shamshad Akhtar has reviewed all legal and administrative steps taken by Islamabad to avoid slipping into category of grey list so proper homework will be done to achieve our desired objectives,” one top official of government confided after attending the meeting chaired by Minister of Finance on Wednesday.In a brief official announcement, the Ministry of Finance stated that Dr. Shamshad Akhtar, Minister for Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs, Statistics and Planning Development and Reforms chaired a meeting here at the Ministry of Finance to review different FATF related issues.

“There are some gaps identified at recently held deliberations at Bangkok for finalising action plan against money laundering and terror financing and different steps are underway to bridge this gap,” said the official.

Following the events of 11 September 2001, the Asia Pacific Group (APG) expanded its scope to include the countering of terrorist financing. The APG is supported by a Secretariat, which serves as the focal point for its activities. The APG became an Associate Member of the FATF in 2006.

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