Azhar described as right choice to lead team

TAHIR AMIN & ALI HUSSAIN

ISLAMABAD: The government’s decision to pick Hammad Azhar, Minister for Economic Affairs Division, to represent Pakistan in the critical Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meeting this week in Paris, is a right move given his qualifications as a lawyer and his recent exposure to economy related portfolios.

The meeting has been convened to assess the 229-page comprehensive report compiled by Asia Pacific Group (APG) titled Anti Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Measures and to decide whether Pakistan is removed from the list or remains on the grey list or is placed on the black list.

There is a consensus amongst economists and government officials that Hammad Azhar as the head of the delegation to FATF is a good decision given his legal background and exposure to economic related fields - reasons why he was given preference over Hafeez Shaikh, the Adviser of the Prime Minister on Finance.

The FATF meetings are being held in Paris from October 13 to October 18, and will scrutinize the progress made by Pakistan until April this year.

Finance Ministry officials, who requested anonymity, insisted that Azhar has been dealing with the FATF and attended related meetings here and abroad, adding that the decision was taken also to keep in view his legal background.

Dr Ashfaque Hassan Khan, former Advisor to Finance Ministry, stated that while Pakistan team is led by Azhar yet officials from other relevant departments will assist him.

He said that most of the agenda of the FATF with regard to Pakistan is related to legal actions and measures undertaken by the country to check money laundering and terror financing.

“Having a legal as well as economic background, I believe the government’s decision to send its team under Hammad Azhar is a right move,” he said.

Pakistan is looking to get off the FATF’s grey list, which was added to the list last year after the body decided that the country had failed to take enough measures to curb money laundering and terror financing.

Earlier on October 2, the Asia-Pacific Group (APG) on money laundering released its mutual evaluation report, according to which, Pakistan was “non-compliant” on four out of 40 recommendations of the APG on effectiveness of the anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) system.

The report based on Pakistan’s performance as of October 2018 showed that the country was fully “compliant” only on one aspect relating to financial institutions secrecy laws. It was found “partially compliant” on 26 recommendations and “largely compliant” on nine others.