President of Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF), Mian Zahid Hussain has emphasized the need of taken appropriate measures along with the coastal belt to stop smuggling of goods and currency, which will improve the security situation and will bring better results. He said that security, surveillance and technology have improved on the borders with Iran and Afghanistan to further strengthen curbing suspicious activities and transactions related to money laundering and terror financing.
He said that Financial Action Task Force has showed satisfaction over Pakistan's performance regarding countering money laundering and terror financing which is encouraging; however the threat of being blacklisted is still there. Decision will be taken in another meeting of FATF in May this year as to put the country in black list of green list in coming September.
Pakistan needs to take every possible step to avoid blacklisting of the country including realising the United States about the huge sacrifices given by Pakistan. Pakistan is 5th most terrorism affected country with sacrifices 80,000 precious human lives, $120 billion economic losses and displacement of millions of people.
He said that report has sent to the FATF prior to the recent meeting regarding performance of the Country on 27 FATF recommendations on curbing money laundering and terror financing, which states Pakistan's achievements and measures taken in accordance to the UN charters. 3677 suspicious transactions have been stopped since 2015 in which 1167 have stopped in 2018 alone, which is a great success. The transactions include donations, currency smuggling, natural resources, drugs, etc for which the State Bank, FBR and FIA have played significant roles.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that if Pakistan get included in black list it will bring drastic implications on the country's weak economy; banking channels, imports, exports and foreign loans will see negative implications of blacklisting. Government needs to take every possible step to avoid FATF's blacklisting.