Pakistan put on terror-financing watchdog FATF's 'grey list': Reports

NEW DELHI: Terror financing watchdog, Financial Action Task Force (FATF), has decided to put Pakistan back on the "grey list" after a gap of three years, reported ANI.

The news comes a day after the US President Donald Trump expressed apprehensions over the progress made by Islamabad on curbing terror activities emanating from its soil.

The White House had said that for the first time, the US is holding Pakistan accountable for its actions.

"I know that we have restored some clarity in our relationship with Pakistan. For the first time we're holding Pakistan accountable for its actions," White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah told reporters during a press conference.

"We've seen modest progress in terms of Pakistan's actual acknowledgement of these concerns, but the President is not satisfied with progress when it comes to Pakistan," Shah said.

Earlier this week, Pakistan had claimed that it had thwarted a US bid to place it on the terror-financing watch-list.

“Our efforts paid, FATF Paris 20Feb meeting conclusion on the US-led motion to put Pakistan on watch list — No consensus for nominating Pakistan,'' Pakistan foreign minister Khwaja Asif tweeted on Tuesday evening, based on which Pakistani media reported that “'US bid to put Pakistan on terror financing watch-list falls through.”


In Washington, US state department spokesperson Heather Nauert told reporters in response to a question on Khwaja Asif’s tweet that the US was “anticipating that the final decision would be made on Thursday of this week”.

“I cannot (respond to the tweet) because my understanding was that the final decision on that was due later this week. I don't want to get ahead of what that final decision would be. I don't have just independent confirmation that a decision was made early,” she was quoted as saying by news agencies.

To avoid inclusion in the FATF watch list, the government had also amended the country’s anti-terrorism law on February 9 through a presidential ordinance in a bid to address some concerns of the FATF/APG. The legislation provided legal ground for action against UN-banned organisations like Lashkar-e-Taiba, headed by the Mumbai attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed.