Dr. Miftah Ismail, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance, and Ambassador Alice G. Wells, US Acting Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, met recently to discuss the steps on how Pakistan plans on fighting money laundering and terror financing.
Although Pakistan has previously kept their future plans top secret, they have already implemented the first steps by prohibiting terrorist funding. SECP (Securities and the Exchange Commission of Pakistan) introduced a new order which bans donations to Saeed, LeT, JuD, Fif, and other possible terrorist groups on the U.N Security Council sanctions list.
In addition, Dr. Ismail explained that Islamabad had recently stopped banned outfits from collecting donations that were to be used to stop the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) from proposing a new action against Pakistan which is to be discussed in the FATF meeting next month. According to a handout by the finance ministry, Ambassador Wells’ said that the relationship between the US and Pakistan was important and that the US would like to carry it forward which suggests that the US is open to improving relations with Islamabad, despite what US President Donald Trump has recently expressed on Twitter stating that “[Pakistan has] given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools.” The Ministry of Finance officially stated that, “they discussed the current state of ties between the two countries, with the particular emphasis on the economic cooperation.”
Dr. Ismail believes that in order to create a stable relationship with one another, direct contact on both sides is needed. He also expressed his openness to planned US visits from business representatives and the strengthening of US and Pakistan economic ties.
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