ISLAMABAD, Sept 13: “The Asia-Pacific Group of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global watchdog for terror-financing and money laundering, has rated Pakistan’s level of effectiveness as ‘low’ on 10 out of 11 international goals on anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terror,” a media report said on September 12.
Asia-Pacific Group (APF), the Sydney-based regional affiliate of the FATF, released an update as of September 2 on the rating of its regional members suggesting that Pakistan had a ‘moderate level of effectiveness’ on only one out of 11 outcomes, reported Dawn.
Under this ‘immediate outcome’, Pakistan extends international cooperation on appropriate information, financial intelligence and evidence and facilitates action against criminals and their assets.
“A 15-member joint delegation of FATF and APG paid an onsite visit to Pakistan from August 29 to September 2 to verify the country’s compliance with a 34-point action plan committed with FATF at the highest level in June 2018,” the report said.
The task force had found Pakistan compliant or largely compliant on all the 34 points in February this year and had decided to field an onsite mission to verify it on the ground before formally announcing the country’s exit from the grey list.
Under the FATF-APG assessment mechanism, effective ratings on “Immediate Outcomes” reflect the extent to which a country’s measures are effective.
The assessment is conducted on the basis of 11 immediate outcomes, which represent key goals that an effective on Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terror (AML/CFT) system should achieve.
However, this has no direct bearing on an expected exit of Pakistan from FATF’s grey list during its October 18-22 plenary in Paris.
Last month, the APG had described Pakistan as ‘compliant’ or ‘largely compliant’ on 38 out of 40 technical recommendations of the FATF on anti-money laundering and combating financing of terror. It had, however, retained Islamabad on ‘Enhanced Follow-up’ until further progress was made on the two remaining recommendations.
This means that Pakistan has made major progress on FATF’s technical recommendations to qualify to be moved out of ‘grey list’, but it is still far behind FATF’s immediate outcomes on effectiveness.
The APG noted that Pakistan had a low level of effectiveness on 10 “Immediate Outcomes (IOs)” under international standards against money laundering and terror financing.
The first IO on which the effectiveness is rated as moderate is that money-laundering and terror-financing are understood and where appropriate actions coordinated domestically to combat money-laundering and the financing of terrorism and proliferation, the report said.
There are nine other IOs on which Pakistan has been ranked as having a ‘low level of effectiveness.
Goal 7 & 8 require that ML offences and activities are investigated and offenders are prosecuted and are subject to effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions are taken and proceeds and instrumentalities of crime are confiscated.
Likewise, target 9 & 10 demand that terror-financing offences and activities are investigated and persons who finance terrorism are prosecuted and are subject to effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions and terrorists, terrorist organisations and terrorist financiers are prevented from raising, moving and using funds and from abusing the non-profit organisations sector.
The immediate outcome 11 requires that persons and entities involved in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction are prevented from raising, moving and using funds, consistent with the relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions, according to the Dawn report.
The exit from the FATF grey list will restore Pakistan’s image and give confidence to foreign investors for doing ventures in the country. The grey-listing makes it hard for countries to do financial transactions and raises the cost of doing business.
“Pakistan’s removal from the grey list will help give impetus to its struggling economy,” according to experts. (Agencies)

NEW DELHI, Sept 13: Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi is set to become Attorney General of India for a second time from October 1.
The tenure of the incumbent Attorney General, K.K. Venugopal, is coming to a close on September 30. The 90-year-old jurist has made it clear that he would not want to continue as the top law officer.
Mr. Rohatgi (67) had served as the 14th Attorney General of India when the Narendra Modi government came to power in 2014. He had served for three years, till 2017. He had returned to private practice and Mr. Venugopal was appointed the 15th Attorney General.
Mr. Venugopal had initially served a tenure of three years and was later given extensions. The last one was in June 2022 for a period of three months.
Mr. Rohatgi has recently represented the Special Investigation Team in the Zakia Jafri case in which the Supreme Court had upheld the clean chit given to the Gujarat government in connection with the 2002 riots. He had also represented Aryan Khan, the son of actor Shahrukh Khan, in a narcotics case before the Bombay High Court. Mr. Rohatgi was lawyer for Ashish Mishra, an accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri case and son of Union Minister, in the Supreme Court.
The senior advocate was at the helm when a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court had struck down the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) during his first stint as Attorney General. (Agencies)

New Delhi, Sept 13: India will assume the Presidency of the G20 for one year from December 1, 2022, to November 30, 2023, and during its Presidency, it is expected to host over 200 G20 meetings across the country.
The G20 Leaders’ Summit at the level of Heads of State/Government is scheduled to be held on September 9 and 10, 2023 in New Delhi, read the Ministry of External Affairs press release.
The G20, or Group of Twenty, is an intergovernmental forum of the world’s major developed and developing economies. It comprises 19 countries – Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, UK, USA – and the European Union (EU).
Collectively, the G20 accounts for 85 per cent of global GDP, 75 per cent of international trade and two-thirds of the world population, making it the premier forum for international economic cooperation.
India is currently part of the G20 Troika (current, previous and incoming G20 Presidencies) comprising Indonesia, Italy and India.
During its Presidency, India, Indonesia and Brazil would form the troika. This would be the first time when the troika would consist of three developing countries and emerging economies, providing them with a greater voice, added the release.
The G20 currently comprises – Finance Track, with 8 workstreams (Global Macroeconomic Policies, Infrastructure Financing, International Financial Architecture, Sustainable Finance, Financial Inclusion, Health Finance, International Taxation, Financial Sector Reforms); Sherpa Track, with 12 workstreams (Anti-corruption, Agriculture, Culture, Development, Digital Economy, Employment, Environment and Climate, Education, Energy Transition, Health, Trade and Investment, Tourism); 10 Engagement Groups of private sector/civil society/independent bodies (Business 20, Civil 20, Labour 20, Parliament 20, Science 20, Supreme Audit Institutions 20, Think 20, Urban 20, Women 20 and Youth 20).
In addition to G20 Members, there has been a tradition of the G20 Presidency inviting some Guest countries and International Organizations (IOs) to its G20 meetings and summits.
Accordingly, in addition to regular International Organizations (UN, IMF, World Bank, WHO, WTO, ILO, FSB and OECD) and Chairs of Regional Organizations (AU, AUDA-NEPAD and ASEAN), India, as G20 President, will be inviting Bangladesh, Egypt, Mauritius, Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Singapore, Spain and UAE as Guest countries, as well as ISA (International Solar Alliance), CDRI (Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure) and ADB (Asian Development Bank) as Guest IOs, read the release.
Whilst India’s G20 priorities are in the process of being firmed up, ongoing conversations inter alia revolve around inclusive, equitable and sustainable growth; LiFE (Lifestyle For Environment); women’s empowerment; digital public infrastructure and tech-enabled development in areas ranging from health, agriculture and education to commerce, skill-mapping, culture and tourism; climate financing; circular economy; global food security; energy security; green hydrogen; disaster risk reduction and resilience; developmental cooperation; fight against economic crime; and multilateral reforms. (Agencies)