International body questions Pak's role in terror funding

If the reports tabled during the third plenary of Inter-governmental Finacial Action Task Force (FATF) – being held in Valencia in Spain is any indication, the role of Pakistan in terror funding is again under scanner.

In its latest report tabled in the plenary, the Paris-based international financial watchdog had categorically mentioned that Pakistan had been continuing its connivance in funding the terrorist entities. The report further mentioned that certain UN-designated terror groups in the country receive money due to lack of control by the authorities.

As per the report, as certain entities designated under UN Security Council Resolution 1267 continued to receive and disperse funds without controls being applied by the competent authorities in Pakistan, the International Cooperation Review Group (ICRG) of FATF, consequently, had requested its regional arm Asia Pacific Group (APG) for furnishing the revised follow-up report on Pakistan at the APG annual meeting in July 2017.

Justifying India's stand on Pakistan-based terrorist organisations including Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, the FATF had asked Pakistan to comprehensively report directly to the ICRG in September on updates regarding Pakistan's implementation of the UNSCR 1267 with respect to designated entities of concer and others get patronage from the state itself.

The FATF was established in 1989 to set standards and promote effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and combat other related threats to the international financial system. Since its inception, it has developed a series of recommendations that are recognised as the international standard for combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

In February 2015, when Pakistan was removed from ICRG monitoring, the FATF had encouraged Islamabad to continue working with it and APG to effectively implement its AML (Anti-Money Laundering) and CFT (Combating Financing of Terrorism) systems.