Money-laundering watchdog expected to take final decision in its virtual meeting on February 22
LAHORE:
Despite strong "Indian lobby", Pakistan hopes that a watchdog for global money-laundering will not make a "politically motivated" decision at the next meeting later this month and remove the country's name from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list.
Pakistan's anxious eye is on the four-day virtual meeting of the FATF – a Paris-based global money-laundering watchdog – starting on February 22, which is expected to decide whether or not to remove Islamabad from its grey list.
The country has been on the FATF radar since June 2018, when it was placed on its grey list for terrorist financing and money laundering risks after an assessment of the country's financial system and security mechanism. Since then, Pakistan has been escaping the watchdog's financial crime blacklist with the support of Turkey, China, and Malaysia.