Grey list challenge

Pakistan’s likely removal from the grey list of international watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) should be a matter of grave concern for India not because it would want its neighbour to continue to suffer economic hardship, but because there is no visible indication that Islamabad has changed its ways on terror funding and cross-border misadventure that would warrant such a decision. The Paris-based group of 37 member countries and two regional groups, the Gulf Cooperation Council and the European Commission, had added Pakistan to the list in 2018, but the praise for the country for implementing the organisation’s action plans and the decision on an on-site visit show that getting off the list is just a matter of time.

An independent think tank in Pakistan estimates that it has cost the economy $38 billion since the country was put on the list, which could have scared away investors and creditors, but despite the financial repercussions, the relentless drone drops in J&K and Punjab, infiltration attempts and targeted killings are proof that the state policy of wounding India remains robust. Countries on the grey list are meant to have ‘strategic deficiencies’ in implementing an effective legal regime to combat money laundering and terror financing. In New Delhi’s assessment, Pakistan’s detention of suspects and prosecution of commanders of UN-designated terror groups have been an eyewash, with brazen footprints of army patronage.

The double standards and inconsistencies in the global support for the war against terror mean that India has to redouble efforts to secure its borders and fight the protracted battle largely on its own strengths — a fact made clearer as China blocked a joint proposal by India and the US to designate Pakistan-based top LeT militant Abdul Rehman Makki as a global terrorist under the UN sanctions committee. His involvement in raising funds, recruiting and radicalising youths for attacks in India is uncontested. Yet, he is out of bounds. The challenge only gets bigger.