The global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog, Financial Action Task Force (FATF), has retained Pakistan on its terrorism financing ‘grey list’. It has asked Islamabad to address at the earliest the remaining deficiencies in its financial system, or it could slip into the ‘black list’.
Pakistan has been on the FATF ‘grey list’ since June 2018 for failing to check money laundering, leading to terror financing. It was given a plan of action to be completed by October 2019. But the country failed to take any concrete action against the terror organisations and their sponsors.
International community’s punishment:
The failure of Pakistan to act against terrorism has made the world realise that the country won’t mend its way and it’s high time to take punitive action against the nation, which rears terrorism in its backyard.
US lawmaker Scott Perry, a Republican Congressman from Pennsylvania, has called for the designation of Pakistan as a state sponsor of terrorism. The bill moved by him seeks to “provide for the designation of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan as a state sponsor of terrorism, and for other purposes”.
The proposed sanctions include restrictions on foreign assistance; a ban on defence exports and sales; certain controls over the export of dual-use items; and miscellaneous financial and other restrictions.
It appears that the game has ended for Pakistan as the international community led by the United States wants to punish it for spreading terror and preaching hatred.
Media reports hinted if the bill moved by the US lawmaker gets approved, Pakistan will join Iran, Syria, Cuba and North Korea as countries that have been designated sponsors of terrorism.
The rulers in Pakistan are caught in a quandary as their tactics of deceit and falsehood are not working. Besides facing the ire of the international community, the leadership is also facing the heat from its own people. The economic scenario of Pakistan is deteriorating with each passing day.
The research carried out to ascertain the reasons for Pakistan’s poor economy has pointed out that lack of good governance, negligence of agriculture sector, market distortion/high rate of inflation, trade deficit dilemma, discriminatory education policies, unfair distribution of allocation and resources in education are just a few causes of the sufferings of the denizens.
During the past 70 years, Pakistani leaders have failed to provide the common masses with basic facilities of life as most of them have been puppets in the hands of its army. Pakistan is under heavy international debt and figures among the poorest economies in the world.
