Pakistan on Friday inched closer to being taken off the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) with the plenary in Berlin finding Islamabad in compliance of all 34 tasks mandated by the terrorist financing watchdog.

The FATF on Friday decided that the corrective actions taken by Pakistan to fight against terrorism emanating from its soil warranted an on-site visit that is usually the last mile before being delisted.

Pakistan has been on the FATF grey list since 2018. FATF greylisting impacts imports, exports and remittances, and also limits access to international lending.

In a related development, China on Thursday blocked an effort by India and the US to sanction Pakistan-based terrorist Abdul Rehman Makki under the United Nations Security Council’s al Qaida and ISIL Sanctions Committee (UNSC 1267 Committee) by placing a “technical hold” on the proposal that defers the bid by a maximum of six months.

Makki, the deputy Amir/chief and head of political affairs of the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, is a UN-proscribed terrorist and India’s most wanted Hafiz Saeed’s brother-in-law.

The LeT and the JuD have also been proscribed by the UN.

Makki was reportedly arrested by the Pakistan government on May 15, 2019, and kept under house arrest in Lahore. In 2020, he was convicted of terrorism financing and was sentenced to prison by a Pakistani court.

The proposal to list Makki under the UN Security Council sanctions regime was circulated to all members of the council’s 1267 Committee under a no-objection procedure till Thursday when China placed a technical hold on it in a repeat of the manner in which Beijing had blocked proposals to designate Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist.

He was finally designated as one in May 2019 after China backed the proposal.

Dera chief granted parole

Chandigarh: Jailed Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh walked out of Sunaria jail in Haryana’s Rohtak Friday on month-long parole granted by the state government.

Ram Rahim is currently serving a life term after his 2017 conviction in two rape cases.

He has also been convicted for the murder of his manager in 2002. PTI