Imran sets up body to help meet FATF targets

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has set up a high-powered 12-member National Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Coordination Committee to ensure execution of all FATF-related tasks till December 1, a media report said on Monday.

The move comes after the Asia-Pacific Group, a regional affiliate of the FATF, on August 23 place Pakistan under its enhanced monitoring mechanism after it failed to comply with 11 recommendations out of 40.

Islamabad will now have to submit a new report to the APG on the implementation of its recommendations by February 1, 2020.

"The committee is mandated to steer the national effort on FATF," said a notification issued by the Prime Minister's Office on Sunday.

Led by Minister for Economic Affairs Division Hammad Azhar, the Committee comprises federal secretaries of finance, foreign affairs and interior besides heads of all the institutions and regulators concerned with money laundering and terror financing, Dawn news said in its report.

They include the Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Chairman of Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), Director General (dg) of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), member (customs) of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and DG of the Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU).

The committee also has three senior officials from the military's General Headquarters (GHQ).

Pakistan is currently being monitored at three different but interlinked levels - APG, the US and the FATF - that would determine the country's possible exit from the FATF grey list.

Given significant progress on its 10-point action plan on 27 different standards, authorities expect to secure a couple of months of grace period to be fully compliant when the country comes under final review of the FATF by mid-October, Dawn news reported.

Last week, the National Counter Terrorism Authority declared two more outfits - Hizbul Ahrar and Balochistan Raaji Ajoi Sangar (BRAS) - as proscribed organisations, putting their members and activities under surveillance. Seventy-one organisations are already on the list.