DefinePK

Abstract

Since 2008, Pakistan has been actively trying to comply with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards on money laundering and terrorism financing. In this respect, Pakistan is on a quest to transform its legal, regulatory, and enforcement frameworks to curb all kinds of financial crimes. Pakistan has been grey-listed thrice by the FATF due to strategic deficiencies in its frameworks to fight money laundering and terrorism financing. However, it has been argued that pressure from the FATF is a result of the political influence that global powers have over the workings of the global watchdog. This paper studies the origin and evolution of the FATF and Pakistan’s history with the FATF – its instances of falling prey to the grey list and the reasons behind being placed in this list. It further tries to address the question of the extent to which the FATF is politicized and how that has affected Pakistan's case. This paper also analyses the domestic political developments in Pakistan which have further complicated Pakistan’s removal from the grey list.