\u2018excellent\u2019 performance
\n ISLAMABAD
\nMinister for Energy Hammad Azhar has said that Pakistan is near completing the action plans given by Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to ensure compliance in line with its standards.
\nAddressing the participants of the first \u2018Assessors Course\u2019 at National FATF Secretariat on Wednesday, the energy minister vowed that Pakistan would continue with \u2018improvement processes\u2019 for regional and world safety, even after completing the FATF action plans.
\n\u201cTwo toughest action plans were given to Pakistan and we showed excellent performance in a short span of time, and now we are near to completing both tasks,\u201d he further said. Hammad, who is also chairman of Pakistan\u2019s Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism Group, said that Pakistan is playing a key role in global fight against terrorism, its financing and money-laundering.
\nReferring to the FATA action plans, he said that Pakistan learned a lot from this challenge, converting it into an opportunity to improve the existing system. \u201cThis assessors\u2019 course is part of it as we want Pakistan to have the local capacity to assess the public and private institutions dealing with financial flows,\u201d he added.
\nHe expressed confidence that Pakistan\u2019s assessors, after getting training, would not only be able to represent the country at international level but also provide services to other countries. He said this assessor\u2019s course is good development which shows Pakistan\u2019s increasing compliance and commitment towards the FATF.
\nWith these measures, Hammad said, Pakistan\u2019s future generations would benefit due to lasting peace in the region and world. \u201cIt will greatly help check the menace like money-laundering, through which billions of dollars of poor countries are illegally shifted to other countries every year,\u201d he added.
\nNational FATF Secretariat Director General Khawaja Adnan Zahir, in his welcome address to the concluding session of Pakistan\u2019s first 9-day Assessors Course, highlighted the importance of the training for law enforcement agencies and other departments, keeping in view the massive challenges the country faced over the last three years.
\nHe said that during the past decade, the global AML\/CFT landscape has changed tremendously and regulatory checks on it has increased. \u201cThe economic and political image of many countries have been tainted because of issues like ML\/TF [Money Laundering & Terrorism Financing],\u201d he said, adding Pakistan has throughout been one of the most affected countries from ML\/TF issues due to numerous reasons.
\nThe Financial Action Task Force on October 21 last announced that it is retaining Pakistan on the grey list, while noting that \u201cgood progress\u201d has been made in completing the required action items for removal from the list.
\nFATF President Dr Marcus Pleyer said that Pakistan has two concurrent action plans with a total of 34 action plan items. \u201cIt has now addressed, or largely addressed 30 of the items,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s most recent action plan from June this year which largely focused on money laundering deficiencies was issued after FATF\u2019s regional partner APG (Asian Pacific Group) identified a number of serious issues. Overall, Pakistan is making \u201cgood progress\u201d on the new action plan, he said, adding that of the 7 new items, four have been \u201caddressed or largely addressed\u201d.
\nHe said this includes showing that financial supervisors are conducting on-site and off-site checks on non-financial sector businesses and enacting legislative amendments to improve international cooperation.
\nDr Pleyer also spoke of Pakistan\u2019s earlier action plan, dating back to June 2018, and which focuses on terrorist financing issues, \u201cPakistan is still assessed to have largely addressed 26 out of 27 items\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u2018excellent\u2019 performance ISLAMABAD Minister for Energy Hammad Azhar has said that Pakistan is near completing the action plans given by Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to ensure compliance in line with its standards. Addressing the participants of the first \u2018Assessors Course\u2019 at National FATF Secretariat on Wednesday, the energy minister vowed that Pakistan would continue […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224816,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-225210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-top-news"],"yoast_head":"\n