Opposition Leader in Senate Sherry Rehman through a calling attention notice sought the response of the government about inclusion of Pakistan in FATF's grey list despite the previous government's promise of robust diplomatic efforts to get rid of it.
Akhtar said that the team led by her in its meeting in Paris last month negotiated with the review group and succeeded in convincing to bring down the initially prepared list of 49 policy actions to 27 policy actions.
She said that non-compliance with FATF framework and standards coupled with international politicization adversely resulted in a joint nomination by the US, Germany, UK and France to list Pakistan in grey list.
"When I took the charge, we received information during the process of Asia Pacific Group (APG), where Pakistan had to represent its case through International Cooperation Review Group, that Pakistan was to be blacklisted and there was official communication that Pakistan was again going to be blacklisted," she added.
About reasons to blacklist Pakistan, she said that grounds for Pakistan nomination for blacklisting include weak supervision and enforcement of anti-money laundering by financial institutions especially money service businesses, inadequate terrorist financing investigation and prosecutions, lack of financial sanctions, weaknesses in coordination between federal and provincial governments, ineffective penalties for non-compliance, lack of enforcement of prohibition of funds and financial services and weak coordination between the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing stakeholders.
Akhtar warned, "If we want to be removed from the grey list of FATF, the next government would have to take a strong perspective of this issue by following the process on a very high-powered forum."
"In past, we did not have frequent high-level and high-powered inclusive coordination mechanism within the country due to which high-powered determination will be required by the next government," she added.
She also said that India is also working against Pakistan as it is a member of FATF, for which Pakistan should also take measures to protect its interests and defeat the nefarious motives of the arch rival.
She reiterated that the political commitment to implement action plan will help in getting rid of the grey list if the next government takes the following measures: "Money laundering criminalization, terrorist financing criminalization, asset freezing under UNSCRs 1267 and 1373, fully functional independent FMU, regulating money remitters, and regime for cross-border movement of currencies."
She said that FATF listed Pakistan in public statement due to inadequate compliance with action plan, adding on Jun 2014, the action plan was completed and Pakistan was de-listed from FATF's public statement.
In December 2014, FATF's on-site mission to Pakistan confirmed compliance/ completion of action plan, adding in February 2015, FATF removed Pakistan from the ICRG monitoring process.
"And on June 2015, FATF referred Pakistan to APG to monitor residual concerns on implementation of UNSCR 1267 with respect to three enteritis (LeT, JuD & FiF). In January 2016, Pakistan submitted first annual progress report to APG on residual concerns and in January 2017, Pakistan submitted its 2nd annual progress report to APG on residual concerns," she added.
She said that on June 2017, FATF raised concerns on continuous fund raising by JuD and FiF and inadequacy of asset freezing actions, adding on October 2017, FATF decided that Pakistan will report on following issues through APG.
"Inter-agency coordination in identifying and freezing assets under UNSCR 1267, restricting UN-designated entities' access to fund and financial services and enforcement measures by SBP on non-compliance of MOFA SROs on UNSCR implementation".
On Jan 20, 2018, nomination proposal to list Pakistan was submitted by the USA, UK, France and Germany. On February 6, 2018, APG forwarded Pakistan's report and its analysis to FATF for discussion in the next plenary.
Meanwhile, former Chairman Senate Raza Rabbani protested over secret rendezvous among spy masters of Pakistan, China, Russia and Iran in Islamabad, saying why the Foreign Office is tight-lipped about the meeting.
"This is the right of this House and it should be informed about the secret meeting. The meeting is taking place at a time when country is set to hold crucial elections of its history but the civilians and the Senate have no idea why this meeting took place," he questioned.