PARIS: The international terror financing watchdog – the Financial Action Task Force – on Friday strongly condemned the Pulwama attack and said Pakistan has failed to demonstrate a proper understanding on funding of terrorist groups such as Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba. The FATF also said Pakistan should continue to work on implementing its action plan to address its strategic deficiencies.
This essentially means that Pakistan would remain on the FATF ‘grey list’, making it hard for the country to get international loans. But there will be no blacklisting of Pakistan yet. Blacklisting will prevent institutions like IMF from financially supporting Pakistan that it can ill-afford at this time. If there is no action on ground, India is hoping that it can ultimately build enough pressure to push for Pakistan’s blacklisting later this year.