Pakistan cracked down on Hafiz Saeed’s Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF) on Wednesday, a day after a top official warned that the country would face strict international sanctions if it failed to implement the recommendations made by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan cracked down on Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed’s Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF) on Wednesday, a day after a top official warned that the country would face strict international sanctions if it failed to implement the recommendations made by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force.

FATF is an international body mandated to combat money laundering and terror financing.

According to reports, the government took control of several seminaries and assets belonging to JuD and FIF in Rawalpindi, Attock and Chakwal districts. On Tuesday, Pakistan’s National Counter Terrorism Authority had put JuD and FIF on a list of 70 groups proscribed by the interior ministry. 

Talking to media persons on Tuesday, Arif Ahmad Khan, federal secretary of the finance division, had warned that global economic sanctions could be imposed on Pakistan in case the country failed to take action on FATF recommendations. “We have to proceed against the banned outfits in the light of FATF’s recommendations,” he said.

Last year, FATF had placed Pakistan on the grey list of countries involved in providing monetary assistance to terrorism and given a list of recommendations to Islamabad for implementation. A country’s financial flows are under greater global scrutiny once it is put on the grey list. FATF had given a list of recommendations to Islamabad for implementation before its de-listing from the grey list.

The International Cooperation Review Group of FATF that looked at Pakistan’s action plan in recent meetings was reportedly not satisfied with the progress on breakthroughs set for January 2019. FATF will review Pakistan’s progress again in June, preceded by a face-to-face meeting with the joint group in May. If Pakistan fails to act by then, it could be moved from the grey list to the black list in the next plenary of FATF, likely to be held in September-October. Once it is on the black list, Pakistan would find it difficult to access IMF loans.

In June 2018, Pakistan had made a commitment to work with the FATF and APG to strengthen its AML/CFT regime and to address its strategic counter-terrorism financing-related deficiencies by implementing an action plan to accomplish these objectives.