After months of no action but lots of gas by Pakistan, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) officially placed Pakistan on its grey list at its plenary meeting in Paris. The momentous announcement was made on 27th June. Pakistan tried all it could but despite its best possible diplomatic efforts to avert the nightmarish decision, the financial watchdog argued and concluded that Pakistan had failed to curb terror financing on its soil. Pakistan’s caretaker Finance Minister Dr Shamshad Akhtar had urged the FATF regime to remove Pakistan from its grey list. At the FATF plenary proceedings, the Pakistani delegation unsuccessfully tried to appraise the watchdog of steps Islamabad had taken so far to weed out money laundering and terror financing.

Initial reports from Paris on Pakistan’s fate were misleading in the sense that it offered false indications of the possibility that Islamabad could get more time to take measures to implement the FATF’s anti-money laundering and terrorist-financing regulations. That was not to be. The Foreign Office (FO) had confirmed in February 2018 that Pakistan would be placed on FATF’s grey list in June if it did not take measures to curb terror financing.

FO spokesperson Mohammad Faisal had gone on to assure that an action plan to eradicate terrorist financing was being prepared and would accordingly be shared with the international body. “Pakistan will be assigned to the ‘grey list’ in June, once an action plan has been mutually negotiated,” Faisal had said. Pakistan was expected to cooperate with FATF in every possible way. A 37-nation FATF Plenary held its first meeting on Pakistan in February where the United States led the move to place Pakistan on the watch list. China, Turkey and Saudi Arabia opposed the American move. As three members could effectively stall a move, Pakistan got a lucky escape. But the US, undaunted, pushed for an unprecedented second discussion on Pakistan.

The months leading to Paris meet in late June provided four months interregnum. During the period. Washington succeeded in convincing Saudi Arabia that giving up its support to Pakistan could earn for Riyadh a full FATF membership in return. This broke the minimum trio of three. Only two – China and Turkey – were left in the Pakistan camp, that was one less than the minimum three members required to stall a move. At this stage, China became the first rat to jump the ship, informing Islamabad that it was opting out as it did not want to “lose face by supporting a move that’s doomed to fail”. Pakistan was left with no other alternative. It “appreciated the Chinese position and conveyed its gratitude to Turkey for continuing to support Islamabad against all odds”. Thus, the terror state Pakistan was left high and dry, literally alone to fend the listing at FATF.

The story does not end here. Pakistan, too prone to blaming others for its own frailties, blamed the US and India for the ignominious listing. It refused to admit that its bluff had been called by the international community. It was given sufficient time to take corrective steps but hesitated to take effective action against its “strategic assets”. It huddled into serious contemplation just a fortnight prior to Paris meeting to put some semblance of essaying serious action. A habitual defaulting student persistently avoids homework. After several extended deadlines, when cornered, rather than completing the task, the student offers a further time line of how it intends to complete the task in next couple of months. Pakistan acted in exactly similar fashion.

You can befool some people for some time but cannot befool all every time and forever. This time the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) vehemently and steadfastly refused to be befooled. And Pakistan’s bag of tricks was now empty.