ISLAMABAD:Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar said on Saturday that Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has acknowledged the completion of both action plans by Pakistan and the credit for it goes to the state and not to any political party.

Ms Khar was addressing a presser in Islamabad after her return from Berlin where she went to attend the plenary meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). She hoped that Pakistan would come off the FATF grey list by October. She hoped once the country was off the FATF watch list, our economy would be improved.

She lauded the state’s foremost measures aimed at stemming the financial aid to terrorists and discouraging money laundering. She said that Pakistan is now “one step away” from exiting the FATF grey list, and the planned on-site visit is a procedural requirement.

It may be noted that FATF in a statement said that Pakistan had met all 34 items on two separate action plans and it will now verify the implementation and sustainability of the country’s money laundering and counter-terrorism financing measures before removing it from its increased monitoring list, also known as the grey list.

FATF said that that Pakistan had substantially completed its two action plans as part of a bid to get off the grey list on which it has been included since 2018, a decision that would end the threat of Islamabad being put on the black list.

It further said an on-site visit was warranted to verify that reforms had begun and were being sustained, as well as that the necessary political commitment remained in place to sustain improvement in the future. It said the country may be removed from the list after an on-site visit to verify the implementation of its reforms on countering terror-financing mechanisms.