FATF's Asia Pacific sub-group blacklists Pakistan for terror funding

In a massive victory for India, Pakistan has been blacklisted by terror watchdog Financial Action Task Force's (FATF) Asia Pacific Group (APG). The APG -- the global watchdog for terror financing and money laundering -- has placed India's nuclear-armed neighbour in the "enhanced blacklist" for its failure to meet global standards.

The big development came after APG found terror state Pakistan non-compliant on 32 of the 40 compliance parameters on money-laundering and terror financing. The APG conducted a meeting at Canberra in Australia on Thursday, August 22, regarding a five-year mutual evaluation of Pakistan's progress on upgrading its systems in areas of financial and insurance services and sectors.

On 11 effectiveness parameters, Pakistan was adjudged as low as 10.

On Wednesday, Pakistan had submitted the compliance report on its 27-point action plan to the FATF. Despite its efforts, the terror state was not able to convince the 41-member plenary to upgrade it on any parameter. However, Pakistan has to focus on avoiding the blacklist in October 2019, when the 15-month timeline ends on the FATF's 27-point action plan.

Earlier, Pakistan was grey-listed by the FATF following pressure from the US, France, Germany and the UK.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has 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," said Imran Khan as quoted by a news agency.

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

(With agency inputs)