UNITED NATIONS: China has once again foiled an Indian attempt in the United Nations to malign Pakistan ahead of the Financial Action Task Force’s verdict regarding Pakistan’s removal from so-called gray list.
On October 20–21, in Paris, the first FATF plenary under the two-year Singapore chair will be held.
The banking watchdog is anticipated to take into account a suggestion to add Pakistan to the whitelist from the so-called grey list of possible violators.
Tuesday, India moved to have Shahid Mahmood, who the US had identified as a Lashkar-e-Taiba fundraiser in 2016, blacklisted in the US. On Wednesday, India made another move to blacklist Hafiz Talah Saeed, the son of Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed.
However, by placing a stop on the Indian proposals, China foiled both actions.
India’s efforts to keep Pakistan on the grey list would have been strengthened had such groups been highlighted so soon to the FATF plenary.
“These Indian listings relate to moribund organizations and are designed to malign Pakistan and distract attention from India’s sponsorship of TTP and BLA terrorism, Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Munir Akram was quoted as saying in Daily Dawn.
A spokesperson for the Ministry for Foreign Affairs told journalists that such moves were part of a “malicious campaign” by India, through media leaks.
The spokesperson stated, “This is not the first time that the Indian media has been fed through government leaks to propagate false, unfounded, and manufactured propaganda against Pakistan, immediately before the official FATF meetings.
The FATF and the larger international community “has repeatedly acknowledged the actions taken by Pakistan to improve its anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorism-financing system,” according to the statement.
