MULTAN: Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Sunday said that Financial Action Task Force (FATF) was a technical forum but India was politicizing it to keep sword of grey list hanging over Pakistan.
He was holding a press conference after chairing meeting of district coordination committee to review different projects in the district.
FM Qureshi maintained that Pakistan fulfilled 26, out of total 27 recommendations of FATF. FATF authorities hailed Pakistan’s commitment to implement 26 recommendations, he said, adding that the country was also moving forward towards the last recommendation. FATF should have placed Pakistan on white list as the country actively pursued the recommendations, he pointed out.
However, the foreign minister expressed wonder and posed question why was Pakistan kept on grey list despite it followed 26 recommendations in letter and spirit . Pakistan made 14 amendments in the constitution to pursue FATF’s recommendations, Qureshi added.
The foreign minister maintained that India was politicizing FATF as it wanted that sword of grey list should be kept hanging over Pakistan. Responding to a question, Qureshi remarked that Pakistan was put on grey list during tenure of PML- N. The PTI government took many steps and implemented FATF’s recommendations on anti-money laundering and terror financing, the foreign minister stated .
To another question about withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, Qureshi stated that peaceful Afghanistan was in interest of the region. US force were withdrawing from Afghanistan and there could be fear of a civil war, he said and expressed concern, in case of civil war, Afghanistan would be more affected country and after it, Pakistan would suffer.
Qureshi maintained that Pakistan rendered many sacrifices against terrorism and it did not want the menace of terrorism surface again.He also observed that some elements were playing role of “spoiler” to damage peace process in Afghanistan.
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