Minister for Industries and Production and Chairman FATF Coordination Committee Hammad Azhar, has said that Pakistan has completed almost 90 percent of its current FATF action plan.

The minister who also leads the Pakistani delegation at the FATF, in a series of tweets said Pakistan completed with 24 out of 27 items rated as largely addressed and remaining three items partially addressed.

“FATF has acknowledged Pak's high level political commitment since 2018 that led to significant progress,” he said.

Hammad Azhar said it was noted by the FATF members that Pakistan is subject to perhaps the most challenging and comprehensive action plan ever giving to any country.

The Minister said Pakistan remains committed to complying with both FATF evaluation process.

He also commended the hard work done by dedicated teams in different government departments at federal and provincial level in this connection.

The FATF on Thursday decided to keep Pakistan on its ‘grey list’, giving it four more months – June 20, 2021 – to complete its full action plan.

Speaking at a news conference in a virtual format after the four-day FATF Plenary held in Paris, the FATF President Dr Marcus Pleyer said that to date, Pakistan has made progress across all action plan items and it has now largely addressed 24 out of 27 items of the action plan.

“As all action plan deadlines have expired, the FATE strongly urges Pakistan to swiftly complete its full action plan before June 2021,” he said, adding that Pakistan would not be on the agenda of the FATF’s April Plenary and it would be on the agenda on the plenary to be held from June 20-25, 2021.

He said that Pakistan should continue to work on implementing the three remaining items in its action plan to address its strategically important deficiencies, namely by: (I) demonstrating that TF [terror financing] investigations and prosecutions target persons and entities acting on behalf or at the direction of the designated persons or entities: (2) demonstrating that TF prosecutions result in effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions: and (3) demonstrating effective implementation of targeted financial sanctions against all 1267 and 1373 designated terrorists, specifically those acting for or on their behalf.