Army Chief General Bipin Rawat on Saturday said that there is pressure on Pakistan to take action against terror after the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Friday warned the country of blacklisting it.
He further said that India wants Pakistan to work towards restoring peace.
“There is pressure on them. They have to take action. We would like them to work towards restoring peace. To be on such a ‘Grey List’ is a setback for any nation,” General Bipin Rawat said.
Rawat was in Delhi to inaugurate the “The Ultimate Run”, an event to honor the next of kin and disabled soldiers, organised by the Indian Army.
The global watchdog for terror financing and money laundering, FATF, had on Friday warned Pakistan of blacklisting it if it fails to take complete measures on terror financing and money laundering by February 2020.
It formally announced that Pakistan will remain on its ‘Grey List’ for the next four months, handing it a final lifeline.
Strongly urging Pakistan to swiftly complete its full action plan by the next Plenary in February 2020, the global watchdog for terror financing asserted that in an otherwise situation, it would take action including urging members to advise their financial institutions to give special attention to business relations/transactions with Islamabad.
“Pakistan needs to do more and faster. Pakistan’s failure to fulfill FATF global standards has been looked upon very seriously. If by February 2020, Pakistan doesn’t make significant progress, it will be put in the ‘Black List’,” FATF President Xiangmin Liu said.
The decision was taken after a five-day plenary of the FATF. The inter-governmental organization has urged Pakistan to address all tasks given to it till February 2020.
While noting recent improvements, the FATF expressed serious concerns with the overall lack of progress by Pakistan to address its TF risks, including remaining deficiencies in demonstrating a sufficient understanding of Pakistan’s transnational TF risks, and more broadly, Pakistan’s failure to complete its action plan in line with the agreed timelines and in light of the TF risks emanating from the jurisdiction.
“To date, Pakistan has only largely addressed five of 27 action items, with varying levels of progress made on the rest of the action plan,” a FATF statement said.
The Asia-Pacific Group of the global watchdog for terror financing and money laundering, FATF, in a report ahead of the meeting, had said that Pakistan has been quietly unfreezing their accounts and not providing any information about what it is doing to ensure that the money does not go back into terrorist funding.
The APG report stated that Pakistan “has not taken sufficient measures to fully implement UNSCR 1267 obligations against 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed and other terrorists associated with LeT, JuD among other terror groups”.
Earlier, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval had also said that Pakistan was “under pressure” because of the proceedings of the global watchdog for terror financing and money laundering.
“One of the biggest pressure that has come on Pakistan today is because of the proceedings of the FATF. The FATF has created so much pressure… If you (NIA and other investigating agencies) could collect correct information and sustainable information, you can put it up in the international forum and platforms effectively,” Doval had said while speaking at the Annual NIA Conference of Chiefs of ATS/STF.