Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has accused India of attempting to use the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for political purposes but claimed his nation would foil such nefarious designs.

According to the minister, a technical forum like FATF should not be used for political interests.

Qureshi’s outburst came days after the FATF announced that Pakistan will continue to remain on the watchdog's "increased monitoring list", also known as the grey list, till it addresses the issue of financial terrorism.

Qureshi highlighted on Monday that he raised the concern during his talks with foreign ministers of different countries.

"China, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Indonesia as well as Gulf countries strongly supported us on this issue," Qureshi was quoted as saying by Pakistan’s leading media Tribune in an Islamabad datelined report.

The minister further said that Pakistan would continue to make efforts to prevent money laundering as well as terror financing as per its own interest.

Pakistan, he said, implemented the program given by the international task force although it was a quite difficult one.

He apprised that in addition to the new legislation, Pakistan amended 14 laws and took administrative steps.

Last week too, the minister had alleged that India was making attempts to misuse the forum of the FATF for political purposes and doing propaganda against Pakistan.

Qureshi’s outburst came days after the FATF announced that Pakistan will continue to remain on the watchdog's "increased monitoring list", also known as the grey list, till it addresses the issue of financial terrorism.

Financial terrorism is the only remaining item in the original action plan agreed to as well as all items on a parallel action plan handed out by the watchdog's regional partner – the Asia Pacific Group (APG) – in 2019.

FATF President Dr. Marcus Pleyer has said, "Pakistan has made significant progress and it has largely addressed 26 out of 27 items on the action plan it first committed to in June 2018."

Pleyer, however, added that the item on financial terrorism still needed to be addressed which concerned the "investigation and prosecution of senior leaders and commanders of UN-designated terror groups".

Pakistan has been on the FATF’s grey list for deficiencies in its counter-terror financing and anti-money laundering regimes since June 2018.

Until the last assessment, Pakistan was found deficient in acting against organizations allegedly linked to the terror groups listed by the UN Security Council, prosecuting and convicting banned individuals and tackling smuggling of narcotics and precious stones.

In its last observation in Feb, the FATF president had reiterated that Pakistan had made "progress", but added: "[We] strongly urge completion of the plan [by Pakistan]."

(SAM)