ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Reacting to the US motion tabled in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meeting being held in Paris to bring Pakistan under FATF’s watchlist for allegedly financing terrorists, the Federal Minister for Interior Ahsan Iqbal on Monday said such move would be counterproductive for the war against terror.
Since Sunday, a US and UK sponsored motion is being deliberated upon in the FATF’s Paris meeting which may end up in re-inclusion of Pakistan in FATF’s grey list over non-compliance of its set standards which bar measures including money laundering and terrorist financing.
While responding to questions by the media representatives in Islamabad on Monday, Ahsan Iqbal said the move to put Pakistan on the FATF’s watchlist would hurt its capability to fight terrorism and questioned whose interest would be served by doing so.
The minister said Pakistan was diplomatically engaging different Countries of the World to apprise them of the measures taken by it in the war against terror.
The interior minister hoped that the International Community would recognize sacrifices of Pakistan in the war against terror, and would not take measures that would hamper its anti-terror campaign.
In reply to another question, Ahsan Iqbal condemned continued unprovoked firing by the India forces on the Line of Control (LoC), and said New Delhi was resorting to the tactics in a bid to divert attention from its atrocities against the people in Occupied Kashmir.