Pakistan Saturday rejected the Indian contentions regarding Pakistan on Financial Action Task Force (FATF) related matter as 'preposterous' and 'unwarranted,' describing it yet another evidence of India's relentless efforts to politicise the deliberations of the global watchdog on money laundering and terror financing.
"We regard the statement issued by India regarding the FATF report as preposterous and unwarranted. If anything, this is yet another evidence of India's relentless efforts to politicise the deliberations of FATF for its narrow partisan objectives," Spokesperson Foreign Office Dr Mohammad Faisal said this while responding to the statement by his Indian counterpart Raveesh Kumar.
Dr Faisal said that Pakistan has consistently shared its concerns over this account with the FATF chair and members in the past and drawn their attention to high-level political statements and media leaks from India to cast Pakistan in a negative light and plead for Pakistan's downgrading.
"We hope the broader FATF membership would take cognizance of this continuing malicious campaign and reject any attempt aimed at politicisation of the FATF process by India," he asserted.
Earlier, Indian External Affairs Ministry's Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar, while responding to media queries in New Delhi, said: "The FATF has decided to continue to keep Pakistan on its compliance document (ie, Grey List) for the ICRG monitoring for its failure to complete the action plan items due in January and May 2019."
"We expect Pakistan to take all necessary steps to effectively implement the FATF Action Plan fully within the remaining time frame ie. by September 2019 in accordance with its political commitment to the FATF and take credible, verifiable, irreversible and sustainable measures to address global concerns related to terrorism and terrorist financing emanating from any territory under its control," he added.
Following its plenary meeting in Orlando, Florida, on Friday last, the FATF urged Pakistan to swiftly complete its action plan by October 2019 when the last set of action plan items are set to expire. "Otherwise, the FATF will decide the next step at that time for insufficient progress," said the global watchdog on money laundering and terror financing in its statement.