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Pakistan stays on fatf's 'grey list'

Pakistan on Friday won an extra four months to meet the international anti-terrorism financing norms when the global watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) decided to keep the country off its blacklist for now.



Saying that the FATF members were "satisfied" and have "lauded" Islamabad over the steps taken so far, Dunya News said, "FATF has observed that Pakistan has adopted an effective strategy in the financial sector to curb terror financing and enhanced cooperation between institutions to combat transfer of funds to terrorists."



A statement issued by the Finance Division said the FATF has decided to maintain Pakistan’s status on its ‘grey list’ of countries. In its statement after a meeting in Paris, the watchdog said: “The FATF strongly urges Pakistan to swiftly complete its full action plan by June 2020.”



Pakistan was placed on the FATF grey list in June 2018 and was given a plan of action to complete by October 2019. In October 2019, the FATF decided to keep Pakistan on its grey list till February, giving it time to implement the 27-point action plan.



Pakistan is already finalising major amendments to at least a dozen of its laws to meet the FATF requirements by June.