The United States has put forward a motion to place Pakistan on a global terrorist-financing watchlist with an anti-money laundering monitoring group, according to a senior Pakistani official.
A meeting of FATF member states is due to take place next week in Paris, where the organisation could adopt the motion on Pakistan.
Pakistan has been scrambling in recent months to avert being added to a list of countries deemed non-compliant with terrorist financing regulations by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a measure officials fear could hurt its economy.
Pakistan’s de facto finance minister, Miftah Ismail, told Reuters the United States and Britain put forward the motion several weeks ago, and later persuaded France and Germany to co-sponsor it.
“We are now working with the US, UK, Germany and France for the nomination to be withdrawn,” Ismail said, speaking by telephone from Europe.
“We are also quite hopeful that even if the US did not withdraw the nomination that we will prevail and not be put on the watchlist.”
Pakistan was previously on the FATF watchlist from 2012 to 2015. (Reuters)
