Pakistan garners support to avert FATF blacklisting.

• Position: Financial Action Task Force

Finally, Pakistan managed to garner much-needed support from three-member states of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to avoid being placed on its blacklist, but the threats still lingers on. The country has been on the global money laundering watchdog's radar since June 2018, when it was placed on the grey list for terrorist financing and money laundering risks after an assessment of the country's financial system and security mechanism.

This is certainly a positive development that there is no imminent threat of blacklisting by the FATF due to crucial support from Turkey, China and Malaysia, but Pakistan had to complete its action plan aimed at fully blocking the money laundering and other financial loopholes. An aggressive diplomatic effort by Pakistan frustrated the looming threat with the support of Turkey, China, and Malaysia. The 36-nation FATF charter, the support of at least three member states was essential to avoid the blacklisting. New Delhi - co-chair of the joint group of FATF and Asia Pacific Group wanted Pakistan to be placed on the Paris-based watchdog's blacklist of the countries, which fail to meet international standards in combating financial crimes.

Confirming the development that took place at the five-day meeting of the watchdog's Plenary and Working Group meeting in Orlando, Florida last week, an official at Pakistan's foreign ministry admitted that "the danger is still not over." The group will formally announce the decision of not blacklisting Pakistan in its Plenary scheduled in Paris in October this year.

In a statement in February this year, the FATF said, "Given the limited progress on action plan items due in January 2019, the FATF urges Pakistan to swiftly complete its action plan, particularly those with timelines of May 2019." The watchdog agreed that Islamabad had made progress towards implementation of the action plan - negotiated between Pakistan and the FATF members - in June last year but still sought "dissuasive sanctions" and "effective prosecution" in this connection. Islamabad, at a meeting in Guangzhou, China last month, was reportedly asked to "do more" as its compliance on 18 of the 27 indicators - pointed out in the action plan - was unsatisfactory.

In recent months, Pakistan has taken some major steps in accordance with the action plan, which included: no foreign currency transactions without a national tax number, and ban on currency change of up to US$500 in the open currency market...