Islamabad [PakistanĀ ], April 21 (ANI): PakistanĀ has removed thousands of names from its terrorist watch list in what the country says is an effort to meet its obligations ahead of a new round of assessments by a global anti-money-laundering watchdog.
The so-called proscribed persons list, which is maintained by PakistanĀ ās National Counter Terrorism AuthorityĀ , or NACTA, is intended in part to help financial institutions avoid doing business with or processing transactions of suspected terrorists.
The Wall Street Journal, in one of its reports, mentioned that the list, which in 2018 contained about 7,600 names, has been reduced to under 3,800 in the past 18 months. About 1,800 of the names have been removed since the beginning of March, according to data collected by Castellum.AI, a New York-based regulatory technology company.
No public explanation was given for the removals as they were made, but a PakistanĀ i official said in an email interview that they are part of the countryās ongoing efforts to comply with a commitment to strengthen its counterterrorism safeguards. Global standards call for countries to communicate de-listings to the financial sector immediately upon taking such action.
Pakistan, which designates entities and persons with suspected links to terrorism under its Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997, hasnāt historically done so. On the issue, the Pakistani official, Tahir Akbar Awan, a section officer with the Ministry of Interior, said the list had become ābloated with multiple inaccuraciesā because it contained names of individuals who had died and those who may have committed crimes but werenāt associated with a designated terrorist group.
The Financial Action Task Force, a Paris-based watchdog that sets global standards and monitors countriesā anti-money-laundering and counterterrorism-financing policies, is scheduled to evaluate PakistanĀ ās progress in June, this year, although measures intended to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus could delay the assessment. PakistanĀ has been under increased monitoring from the FATF since June 2018.
If it fails to make progress on an action plan developed by the organization, FATF members could vote to further restrict the countryās access to the international financial system.
In February, the group said PakistanĀ had largely addressed about half of the action items it had agreed to implement to prevent additional sanctions. Several of the names removed from Pakistanās list appear to be aliases for designated terrorists listed on US or United Nations sanctions lists, according to Castellum.AI.
The lack of certain identifiersāsuch as dates of birth or, in some cases, a national ID numberāon NACTAās list makes it difficult to know for sure, sanctions experts said. (ANI)
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