New Delhi, Jan 23 (UNI) India on Thursday expressed hope that the FATF in its meeting in February in Paris will 'evaluate' the progress made by Pakistan on the basis of a set criteria on terror financing issue.
"......We presume that the FATF will evaluate the progress made by Pakistan on the basis of a set criteria. Discussions within the body are always confidential; we always wait for FATF to come out with own press release before we react," MEA spokesman Raveesh Kumar told reporters here.
He maintained it will not be appropriate to speculate what the decision would be out of the FATF meeting.
But he said in the last meeting in October 2019 in Paris, the international anti-terror financing body had expressed very 'serious concern' with the overall lack of progress made by Pakistan to address its terror financing risks including serious deficiencies in demonstrating understanding of its transnational terror financing lists.
Pakistan would need 12 votes of a total of 39 for coming out of grey and landing into the white list.
Over last year or so, India has been putting pressure on Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to blacklist Pakistan - a move that will make it more difficult for Islamabad to seek assistance from IMF.
Islamabad has in the past pledged before FATF that it would address the global concerns regarding implementation of the international standard for countering terror financing.
UNI DEVN ADG 1935