Protests planned outside FATF's Paris headquarter ahead of Pakistan's grey list review

Ahead of FATF's review of Pakistan’s placing on its grey list, Baloch, Pashtun and other communities living in exile in Paris have planned to a protest outside FATF office.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will undertake the next review of Pakistan’s progress in curbing terror-financing and money laundering when the plenary begins on February 21 in Paris, France.

Ahead of the review, the Baloch, Pashtun, Afghan, Uyghur, and communities from Hong Kong living in exile in France have announced to protest outside its headquarters in Paris on February 19.

“The protests are to remind FATF of its commitments and stop Pakistan’s role in terror financing and money laundering in the country and in neighbouring Afghanistan, and its nexus with China that lobbies for Islamabad to be not held accountable,” said exiled Pakistani journalist Taha Siddiqui from Paris.

The protesters will gather at around 2 pm (Paris time) for two hours, followed by refreshments at the Dissident club at 5 pm, said their social media post.

The Paris-based watchdog placed Pakistan in the grey-list in 2018 on its performance to address international concerns on Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism (AML/CGT).

In October 2021, FATF retained Pakistan on its grey list for non-compliance in one critical parameter out of the 27-point action plan that the country had committed to. Additionally, new action plan with six items had been drawn up to address the deficiencies noted in Pakistan’s 2019 APG Mutual Evaluation report.

In a briefing, FATF President Marcus Pleyer said that Pakistan has “addressed or largely addressed” 30 of the 34 items of the FATF action plan to curb money laundering and terror financing.