Pakistan is likely to come off the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) gray list this week after being listed in the infamous category since 2018 for failing to check for money laundering and terrorist financing, reported Monday a media.

Pakistan was included in the enhanced watch list in June 2018 for shortcomings in its legal, financial, regulatory, investigation, prosecution, judicial and non-governmental sector to combat money laundering and terrorist financing considered a serious threat to the global financial system, the Dawn newspaper reported.

With Pakistan remaining on the gray list, it had become increasingly difficult for Islamabad to obtain financial assistance from the IMF, World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and European Union, further compounding the cash-strapped country’s problems.

A joint 15-member delegation from FATF and its Sydney-based regional affiliate – Asia-Pacific Group – conducted an on-site visit to Pakistan from August 29 to September 2 to verify the country’s compliance with the action plan in 34 points engaged with the FATF.

Authorities here had kept a low profile of the delegation’s nationwide visit and later called it a smooth and successful visit.

According to the Pakistani Foreign Ministry, the objective of the visit was to validate on the ground Pakistan’s high-level commitment and the sustainability of the reforms of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML) regime. /FT) and

The report of the FATF on-site team will be discussed at meetings of the International Cooperation Review Group and at FATF Plenary meetings.

Delegates representing 206 Global Network members and observer organizations, including the International Monetary Fund, United Nations, World Bank, Interpol and the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units, will participate in the working group and plenary meetings at Paris.

At the end of the two-day deliberations, the decisions of the plenary would be announced.

In June this year, the FATF found Pakistan compliant or largely compliant on all 34 points and decided to send a mission there to verify it on the ground before officially announcing the country’s exit from the gray list which finally took place in August and September.

According to Dawn press report, the government had made a commitment to the IMF to review by the end of June 2022 the implementation of AML/CFT controls by financial institutions with regard to the tax amnesty program for the construction sector and promised to meet the implementation deadlines of the APG Action Plans 2021.

The FATF is an intergovernmental body created in 1989 to combat money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system.