Will walk the talk on terrorism, claims Bilawal Bhutto in US as Pak stays in FATF grey list

Washington [US], May 20 (ANI)

While Pakistan faces grim economic prospects with the country languishing in the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto sought to impress upon the international audience that the newly-appointed Shebaz Sharif government will walk the talk on terrorism.

He accused the previous Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government of not fighting extremism and promised. Bhutto made these comments during his three-day official visit to the US where he attended a global food security meeting in New York.

Answering a question on Pakistan's position on terrorism, Bhutto said, "As far as terrorism and extremism is concerned, this is a consistent, long term and existential threat to all of us. Pakistan has a National Action Plan that is all-encompassing. It combats hate speech, it combats extremism, it combats this thought and this toxic ideology and has a way forward to deal with groups."

The National Action Plan was established in January 2015 to crack down on terrorism and supplement the anti-terrorist offensive in the country, following the deadly 2014 Peshawar school attack. But little action was taken on the implementation of the ambitious plan.

The newly appointed minister said that unfortunately the plan on terrorism was "owned and implemented" in the way it should have been by the previous government.

"We fully own the National Action Plan, we will implement it and walk the walk that we talk about to ensure the safety not only of the future generation in Pakistan but also in the international world," he added.

This promise to combat extremism comes as Pakistan continues to languish on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list.

The Paris-based watchdog in March had retained Pakistan on the increased monitoring list, also known as the "grey list" and called the country to work on "complex money laundering investigations and prosecutions."

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

This greylisting has adversely impacted its imports, exports, remittances, and limited access to international lending.