In a major achievement, Pakistan is set to exit the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Media reports quoted a government official as saying that this time “things seem to be going Pakistan’s way.”
According to the details, a four-day plenary session of the FATF is scheduled to end today after which the global anti-money laundering watchdog will announce its decision about which countries will remain on the list and which have been removed.
As per multiple reports, there are strong chances that Pakistan will exit the FATF grey list. German Ambassador Bernhard Stephan Schlagheck has also said that there are indicators that Pakistan will get out of the grey list of FATF as it has full filled most of the requirements for this purpose.
Read more: How FATF is being used as a tool for global elites?
Reports say Pakistan has been removed from #FATF grey list with a formal announcement to be made later today.
— Wajahat Kazmi (@KazmiWajahat) June 17, 2022
Pertinent to mention, Pakistan was placed on the FATF grey list after it failed to meet the international anti-money laundering (AML) and combating financing of terrorism (CFT) standards and was asked to work closely with the Asia Pacific Group to achieve targets. Under the previous government, led by PTI, Pakistan made significant progress which FATF too recognized.
“Since June 2018, when Pakistan made a high-level political commitment to work with the FATF and APG to strengthen its AML/CFT regime and to address its strategic counter-terrorist financing-related deficiencies, Pakistan’s continued political commitment has led to significant progress across a comprehensive CFT action plan,” the FATF statement said during the last meeting which was held during Imran Khan’s tenure.
Pakistan thanks Imran Khan
Therefore, as Pakistan finally nears its exit from the FATF grey list, netizens have flooded social media with praise and gratitude for the previous government and former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Multiple trends are currently running on Twitter, praising Imran Khan, the PTI government, and former Energy Minister Hammad Azhar who served as the Chairman of Pakistan’s AML and CFT Group. PTI leaders are also celebrating the news.
“With the special attention of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, his team did what no one else has done before,” Dr. Shahbaz Gill tweeted.
مبارک پاکستان۔ پاکستان کو ایف اے ٹی ایف کی گرے لسٹ سے نکال دیا گیا۔سابق وزیراعظم عمران خان کی خصوصی توجہ سے ان کی ٹیم نے وہ کام کر دکھایا جو پہلے کسی نے نہیں کیا۔ میں نے چند دن پہلے ہی کہا تھا کہ اب ارسطو اس کا کریڈٹ لینے کی کوشش کرے گا۔ان چوروں نے ہی ہمیں گرے لسٹ میں ڈلوایا تھا
— Dr. Shahbaz GiLL (@SHABAZGIL) June 17, 2022
“Removal of Pakistan from FATF grey list is yet another feather in PTI Hammad Azhar’s cap. After producing strong economic results in the last two years, successfully managing Covid and now FATF, the question is why was Imran Khan’s government changed,” Former Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin tweeted.
Read more: Khan govt was about to get out of FATF due to this reason
Removal of Pakistan from FATF grey list is yet another feather in PTI@Hammad Azhar's cap. After producing strong economic results in the last two years, successfully managing Covid and now FATF, the question is why was Imran Khan's govt changed?
— Shaukat Tarin (@shaukat_tarin) June 17, 2022
Twitteratis are praising Imran Khan and claiming the credit goes to him for the major achievement.
https://twitter.com/LaraybPTI/status/1537682505071042560?s=20&t=tBvOf3OpjM6J0dGksLTLGA
Credit goes to the one and only
'PTI Leader Imran Khan'#ThankYouImranKhan pic.twitter.com/iNCTJ0RImU— Saman J. (@Saman_J_) June 17, 2022
Interestingly, when PML-N’s Twitter account dedicated to the economy too joined in the social media celebration of Pakistan exiting the grey list, Twitteratis flooded the comment section, accusing it of claiming credit.
Evaluation period was from Oct 21-March 22 which was under PTI tenure. Don't forget to say Thanks to @ImranKhanPTI and @Hammad_Azhar
— Dr Arslan Khalid (@arslankhalid_m) June 17, 2022