Pakistan has suffered another setback at the international stage today as the Asia-Pacific Group of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an international anti-money laundering watchdog, has downgraded it and placed it under the list of blacklisted countries.

The Asia-Pacific Group, one of the nine regional affiliates of FATF, has placed Pakistan in the enhanced expedited follow-up list (also known as the blacklist) for its failure to meet its standards.

India Today TV has learnt that APG indentified many shortcomings in Pakistan's efforts in combating terrorism and money laundering.

Pakistan was adjudged as non-complaint in 32 of the 40 compliance parameters. Despite concerted efforts, Pakistan could not convince the 41-member plenary to upgrade it on any one parameter.

This is worrisome for Pakistan because such rankings will worsen its chances of getting loans from international credit agencies or even attract foreign investments. Pakistan is currently going through one of its worse economic crisis.

Pakistan now faces the challenge of avoiding being placed under FATF's overall black list in October. It was earlier placed in the 'grey list' by FATF.

In June, the FATF said that Pakistan failed to complete its action plan on terror financing. It warned Pakistan to meet its commitment by October or face action, which could possibly lead to the country getting blacklisted.

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Today's decision of APG is worrisome for Pakistan because such rankings will worsen its chances of getting loans from international credit agencies or even attract foreign investments. Pakistan is currently going through one of its worse economic crisis.

The decision to blacklist Pakistan was taken by the APG during its meeting in Canberra, Australia. This was based on a five-year mutual evaluation of Pakistan's progress on upgrading its systems in areas of financial and insurance services and sectors.

On Wednesday, Pakistan had submitted the compliance report on its 27-point action plan to the FATF.

Pakistan's contentions on improving its grading in different parameters also did not get any support at APG's meeting.

Meanwhile, at the time when the APG was meeting in Canberra, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan accused India of lobbying to get it blacklisted.

"We tried really hard to normalise ties with India. But they [India] exploited the situation. They exploited the Pulwama [attack] for their elections. They have been lobbying to get us blacklisted by the FATF (Financial Action Task Force] as well," Imran Khan said.

He also accused India of creating a "war-like" situation similar to the post-Pulwama terror attack to divert the world's attention from the Kashmir issue.

Earlier this month, the US too had urged Pakistan to expand Financial Action Task Force (FATF) safeguards to informal sectors of economy amid its concerns over slow progress on implementation of the 27-point action plan.

A US delegation which has been assessing the on-ground implementation of the 27-point action plan of the FATF took up the matter with federal minister Hammad Azhar, who is also the coordinator on FATF affairs from the civilian side.

The US delegation was visiting Pakistan to have an independent assessment of steps, actions and measures identified during the Florida meetings of the Paris-based anti-money laundering watchdog in June this year and the progress made by Pakistan since then.

(With inputs from Press Trust of India)

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