{"id":8811,"date":"2020-07-02T14:52:17","date_gmt":"2020-07-02T09:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/?p=8811"},"modified":"2020-07-02T14:52:17","modified_gmt":"2020-07-02T09:22:17","slug":"financial-action-task-force","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/financial-action-task-force\/","title":{"rendered":"Financial Action Task Force"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Relevance: Prelims\/Mains : G.S paper III: Economy: Important International institutions, agencies and fora, their structure, mandate.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Context:<\/h3>\n<p>\u2022 Financial Action Task Force, the global watchdog group, has decided to grant Pakistan and other countries on its watch list a three-month extension on fulfilling commitments, in view of the pandemic.<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">What is Financial Action Task Force?<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/fatf-financial-action-task-force-l-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Pakistan maintained on grey list of FATF | TriumphIAS\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u2022 The Financial Action Task Force is an intergovernmental organization founded in 1989 on the initiative of the G7 to develop policies to combat money laundering.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 In 2001, its mandate was expanded to include terrorism financing. It designs and promotes policies and standards to combat financial crime.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Recommendations created by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) target money laundering, terrorist financing, and other threats to the global financial system.<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Pending reforms:<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>\u2022 Pakistan was placed on the grey list or \u201cincreased monitoring\u201d list in June 2018.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 It was given time until October 2019, in order to complete a 27-point action plan on countering terror finance and anti-money laundering.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Failing that, it would be put on the black list of \u201chigh-risk jurisdictions\u201d facing severe financial sanctions.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 This means that in effect, Pakistan will have had at least one extra year to meet its deadlines, despite the fact that it has only completed about 14 points so far.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 The remainder is still a tall order. It includes improving:<\/p>\n<ul style=\"list-style-type: disc;\">\n<li>mechanisms to curb terror financing;<\/li>\n<li>amending laws to curb \u2018Hawala\u2019 transactions;<\/li>\n<li>placing sanctions against cash couriers who facilitate terror groups;<\/li>\n<li>completing the prosecution of groups banned by the UNSC and;<\/li>\n<li>converting madrassas run by them into formal schools.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">No accountability:<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.slideplayer.com\/27\/8905812\/slides\/slide_2.jpg\" alt=\"THE FINANCIAL ACTION TASK FORCE (FATF) AND THE ROLE OF LAWYERS IN ...\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Each item demands more accountability by Pakistan on terror groups.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Despite this being Pakistan\u2019s third stint on the FATF watch list (prior occasions were in 2008 and 2012-2015), there is little evidence that it has yet internalised that message.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 In a U.S. report on terrorism released last week, Pakistan remains a \u201csafe haven\u201d for most UN proscribed groups.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 The report also adds that its steps to prosecute certain leaders of JeM and LeT are inadequate.<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Tacit support to terrorist groups:<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>\u2022 In the past year, Pakistan has pursued indictments against LeT leaders, but not on serious charges.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Even 26\/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed has only been convicted for \u201cbeing part of a banned terrorist outfit\u201d and for \u201chaving illegal property\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Meanwhile, LeT operations commanders Zaki Ur Rehman Lakhvi, Sajid Mir, and JeM chief Masood Azhar appear to be at large.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan\u2019s reference in its Parliament to al-Qaeda founder Osama Bin Laden as a \u201cmartyr\u201d underlines the establishment\u2019s attitude to these groups.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Pakistan\u2019s failed attempt to have the UNSC designate four Indians as terrorists last week \u2014 it was vetoed by the U.S. \u2014 speaks to its lack of credibility on the issue.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Pakistan is counting on its role in facilitating the Afghanistan peace deal by pushing Taliban leaders to participate in order to mitigate its troubles at the FATF.<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Conclusion:<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>\u2022 Eventually, given the rigorous FATF action plan, and the combined pressure of countries in the group, Pakistan would do well to realise that only clear and consistent actions would free it from the commitments at the FATF.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 In any case, giving a free rein to terror groups cannot be in its own interest.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Pakistan has bought time, but it cannot back away from its commitments to the FATF<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>For more such notes, Articles, News &amp; Views Join our Telegram Channel.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Telegram Link\" href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/triumphias\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>https:\/\/t.me\/triumphias<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Click the link below to see the details about the UPSC \u2013Civils courses offered by Triumph IAS.<\/span> <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" title=\"Courses available\" href=\"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/pages-all-courses.php\">https:\/\/triumphias.com\/pages-all-courses.php<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Relevance: Prelims\/Mains : G.S paper III: Economy: Important International institutions, agencies and fora, their structure, mandate. Context: \u2022 Financial Action<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7214,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[123],"tags":[392],"class_list":["post-8811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs","tag-union-public-service-commission-upsc"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8811"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8812,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8811\/revisions\/8812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}