Imran claims credit for FATF 'achievement'.

ISLAMABAD -- As soon as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) announced on Friday that Pakistan has met all 34 of its conditions, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan credited his government with leading the country to this achievement.

In a series of tweets, he praised the members of his former cabinet and aides for the eventual steering of the country out of the FATF grey list.

The financial watchdog will now schedule an on-site visit to verify the implementation and sustainability of Pakistan's money laundering and counter-terrorism financing measures, and remove it from the grey list if it successfully passed the visit 'test'.

However, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) led coalition government was conspicuously silent over the development.

Ex-PM questions deaths of characters in money laundering case against Shehbaz, Hamza

'FATF repeatedly praised the work and political will my govt demonstrated,' the former prime minister tweeted, adding that when his government came to power [in 2018], it faced the direct prospect of blacklisting by the international body as the country's compliance history with the FATF was allegedly not encouraging.

'I constituted a FATF Coordination Committee headed by key minister Hammad Azhar. The committee had representation from all government departments and security agencies relevant to our FATF action plan. The officers worked day and night in the first instance to avoid blacklisting.'

Mr Khan further claimed his government not only averted blacklisting, but also completed 32 out of 34 action items. 'We submitted a compliance report on the remaining two items in April based on which FATF now declared Pakistan's Action Plan as completed,' he added.

He expressed confidence that FATF's on-site visit would also be a success, and lauded former minister Azhar, members of the FATF coordination committee and relevant officers, who 'performed exceptionally well'.

Hammad Azhar, who was the then energy minister and also the government's top coordinator for efforts on anti-money laundering and counter-terror financing, shared a picture of himself...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT