Armenian American diaspora demands Pak's entry into FATF blacklist

With the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) scheduled to meet this month to decide the future of Pakistan in the global arena, the demand for Islamabad to be blacklisted for its terrorist financing continues to grow.

On Thursday, The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) in a tweet wrote that the money-laundering watchdog must add Islamabad to its blacklist for terrorist financing that includes the funding of jihadist mercenaries to fight for Azerbaijan against Artsakh.

"Dear Secretary (Janet) Yellen: Our US Treasury representative to the FATF must press this powerful global money-laundering watchdog to add Pakistan to its blacklist for terrorist financing, including its funding of jihadist mercenaries to fight for Azerbaijan against Artsakh," the ANCA said in a tweet.

In October, the FATF decided that Pakistan will continue to be on its greylist and asked it to continue to work on implementing an action plan to address its strategic deficiencies including demonstrating that its law enforcement agencies are identifying and investigating the widest range of terrorist financing activity and demonstrating that prosecutions result in effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions.

Pakistan is on the FATF's grey list since June 2018 and the government was given a final warning in February 2020 to complete the 27 action points by June in the same year.

The FATF extended the June deadline to September due to the spread of coronavirus that disrupted the FATF plenary meetings.

Pakistan is facing the difficult task of clearing its name from the FATF grey list. As things stand, Islamabad is finding it difficult to shield terror perpetrators and implement the FATF action plan at the same time.

In recent weeks, Pakistan has tried to paint a picture that it started the reforms, including the passing of some Bills to prevent blacklisting by the FATF.

( With inputs from ANI )