ABU DHABI: Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday signed an anti-money laundering pact which is expected to help Islamabad meet the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) requirements to take the country off the financial watchdog’s grey list, Ghulam Dastgir, Pakistan’s ambassador to the UAE, told Arab News on Thursday.
The FATF placed Pakistan on the list in 2018 due to inadequate controls over money laundering and terrorism financing.
“Through this MoU, both countries are now bound through parameters and institutions to share information with each which was not being done formally earlier. This agreement also meets the requirement Pakistan needs to fulfil with regards to the FATF,” Dastgir said.
The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by UAE Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) acting head Ali Faisal Ba’Alawi and Ambassador Dastgir on behalf of Pakistan’s Financial Monitoring Unit.
In February this year, FATF gave Pakistan time to implement by June its 27-point action plan to get off the grey list. The Paris-based global watchdog said that Pakistan had fulfilled 14 of the steps but still needed to do more to track money transfers and investigate and prosecute terrorism-related financiers.
The June deadline was postponed over the coronavirus pandemic. Pakistan’s case is expected to be discussed at the FATF’s next plenary meeting in October.
