Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the UK’s assessment leading to the subject regulation is not based on facts.
Pakistan has a “robust AML/CFT regime in place”, said Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri, Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: He said that Pakistan has taken unprecedented measures through a series of legislative, institutional and administrative actions in the domain of anti-money laundering and countering financing of terrorism. These actions, which have also been reported to FATF and shared with the EU have been “widely acknowledged” by the international community.
“The near completion of Pakistan’s FATF Action Plan through 24 out of 27 Action Items is a testament to Pakistan’s commitment and tangible actions in AML/CFT domain,” he said.
“We hope the U.K. would review its regulations in light of facts on ground and avoid politically motivated and misplaced measures,” he added.
Earlier, the United Kingdom placed Pakistan on the list of 21 “dangerous states on the basis of rampant money laundering and terrorism financing”.
The complete list, released by the UK government, includes Albania, Barbados, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cayman Islands, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Ghana, Iran, Jamaica, Mauritius, Morocco, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, Senegal, Syria, Uganda, Yemen and Zimbabwe, media reports said.
Pakistan stands at number 15 in this list of high risk states, alongside war-ridden countries. UK’s “Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Amendment) Regulations 2021” came into force in Britain in March 2021, with the aforementioned list being released following developments post-Brexit.
The UK government, in a new Schedule 3ZA, identifies a “high-risk third country” as “a country which has been identified by the European Commission as a high-risk third country in delegated acts adopted under Article 9.2 of the fourth money laundering directive”.
