IT has become a routine now that the Paris-based Finance Action Task Force (FATF) praises Pakistan for its hard- work to meet the criteria to come out of the so-called grey list but at the same time the country’s status is kept unchanged, obviously on politically motivated reasons.
There were expectations that the country would be taken out of the grey list as it has met almost all conditions but strangely enough new conditions are added and varying interpretations are offered to keep Pakistan under pressure.
The decision of the FATF on Thursday to keep Pakistan in the grey list despite full implementation of 30 conditions and good progress on the remaining four is reminiscent of the US policy of ‘do more’ under the influence of India, which has its own agenda and designs vis-à-vis Pakistan.
The FATF claimed Islamabad still did not meet the “strategically important” condition about nominating entities and individuals, who should be put on the UN list of terror outfits and persons.
It may be mentioned that some Western nations and India have long been pressuring Pakistan through the FATF forum to target eight groups—the Afghan Taliban, Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), Haqqani Network, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation, al-Qaeda and Islamic State.
While India wants action against Kashmir-related entities, the West insists on action against those who are now part of the new Afghan Government and it is next to impossible for Pakistan to take any action against the leadership of a sovereign country.
This makes it evident that the forum of FATF is being used to advance geo-political goals by different regional and global players.
Indian influence is a reality and this has recently been admitted by its External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar , who told participants of a virtual training programme on the foreign policy for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders that it was “Due to us, Pakistan is under the lens of FATF and it was kept in the grey list.”
It is because of this that former Interior Minister Rehman Malik has expressed serious concerns over the global body’s “discriminatory” conduct in evaluating financial terrorism, lamenting that Pakistan was being victimised over trivial conditions FATF.
President Marcus Pleyer, who announced the decision at the conclusion of three-day meeting of the body, parried a question about remarks of the Indian Minister but circumstances demand Pakistan, in close coordination with some friendly countries, should persuade the FATF to investigate Indian influence on its investigative process.
