The Cat and Mouse game between Pakistan and FATF

By Hafeez Hassanabadi (Translated by Archen Baloch)

Pakistan is on the grey list of the International Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for supporting terrorists and being involved in serious crimes of money laundering since 2018, and so far it has dodged the blacklist by tricking the United States with false promises of help to exit Afghanistan, these procrastinating tactics have become a cat and mouse game between FATF and Pakistan.

It is noteworthy to remind that Pakistan was blacklisted for two years in 2008 but somehow it made to grey list in 2010, but again it slid into blacklist for its shenanigans in 2012. Again it made to grey list in 2014. Later, it extracted itself from the grey to white list, however, in 2018 it was again put on the grey list. It shows that Pakistan has been playing cat and mouse games with the FATF, having been blacklisted twice and grey-listed three times since 2008. Despite being given the chance to improve itself, it has not broken its ties with terrorist organizations.

 If it is ready to risk being globally isolated and lose ten billion dollars annually but not ready to give up its relationship with terrorists, then it means that the terrorists and their organizations are much more beneficial to Pakistan than the annual loss of ten billion dollars. Otherwise, how can a country that is on the brink of economic bankruptcy, sunken in external debt, faces internal political turmoil, begging for alms all over the world, play games with an influential international organization like FATF for the last twelve years?

In recent days, hastily laws have been passed in the Pakistani Parliament in the pretext of fulfilling the requirements of FATF, such as spying on people without permission, imprisoning them without giving any reason, transferring them to unknown places without any warrant or FIR. These illegal laws will reinforce the pre-existing state terrorism and create difficulties for personal freedom, including freedom of expression. Pakistan, at the state level, has been treating its citizens in an illegal and inhumane manner for a long time. The rampantly disappearing thousands of Baloch, Pashtuns and Sindhis without giving any reason, getting them killed by unknown people, strewing of mutilated corpses are routine practices in Pakistan. Now that these inhuman measures have the legal backing, it is not difficult to imagine how miserable could be the life of a common man when faced with such absolute power of a state that has never bothered to respect the human rights of its citizens.

The dangerous thing is that the courts in Pakistan are not independent, which certainly reinforces the fact that the law can be molded and folded according to the will of the state, which means the laws, that are being made in keeping with the demands of FATF, are the laws that will further allow the unstrained state to increase its lawlessness by hoodwinking the international community.

If Pakistani forces can find out secular Baloch and Pashtun political activists and kill them in remote villages and mountains of Balochistan, Waziristan; then why it has failed to apprehend bin Laden, Mullah Omar, Akhtar Mansour, Dawood Ibrahim, Ranjit Singh Neta of Khalistan Zinda Bad Force, Babar Khalsa International,  Leaders of Wadhwa Singh Babar, Khabir Singh of Khalistan Zinda Bad Force, Paramjit Singh of Khalistan Commando Force,

at a time when Pakistan was listed in grey and black because of being non-compliance with FATF’s demands and remain hidden from the eyes of Pakistani agencies under the shadow of Pak army cantonments in different cities of Pakistan?

 Dozens of terrorists including Hafiz Saeed, Masood Azhar, Zakir-ur-Rehman Lakhvi are on the UN Security Council’s list of global terrorists, some of them have been arrested under the pressure of FATF, but the reality is different, they are not in any prison, rather, they’ve been provided VVIPs protocol in state-owned luxury guest houses, from where they’re continuing their terrorist activities in Afghanistan and India.

Baloch, Pashtun and Sindhi are subjected to the worst form of atrocities and brutalisation in Pakistan, and abroad, Afghanistan and Kashmir are their centers from where they are spreading their dirty mayhem all over the world which is known as global terrorism.

The intensification of their activities in Kashmir and the extent of the horror of their war in Afghanistan are no secret. There are still at least three or four Pakistani nationals among every ten terrorists who’re killed in Afghanistan every day and they belong to Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad fighting under the umbrella of one or another terrorist organization.

While providing training camps to Afghans themselves with all kinds of facilities, is a different topic. It is quite clear that if their terror activities have not been affected, it means the arrest of their leaders, the closure of their accounts, the confiscation of their properties are all eyewash tactics Pakistan continuously uses to further its hidden agenda of Punjabi domination.

The catchy slogan,  “Operation Zarb-e-Azb” was carried out in 2015 to eradicate terrorists but in reality, it was all about evacuating its deep state assets and transferring them to safe havens in Afghanistan, Kashmir and Balochistan so that they could be saved from any possible US drone attacks.

Pakistani army cashed in billions of dollars from US and NATO in the name of war against terrorism by a simple act of deception that it was a genuine ally against terrorism, while the homes, shops and properties of innocent Pashtuns were demolished as evidence of its performance, and anyone who raised a voice against this atrocity was selectively killed.

As a result of these atrocities Pashtun Protection Movement, PTM was formed by Pashtun nationalists. State terrorism is also on the rise in occupied Balochistan. On the one hand, hundreds of madrassas have been turned into factories for producing terrorists, on the other, the dirty act of rampant abduction of educated secular members of Baloch society is continuing. While the process of torture and dumping of mutilated dead bodies of Baloch political activists never abates. 

Those who are aware of the state-sponsored terrorism, money laundering and corruption, are well aware that Pakistan must have arranged alternatives for these terrorists before closing their accounts and businesses, exactly in the same way as Pakistan’s military generals, politicians, bureaucrats steal billions in the name of their relatives by manipulating under the pretext of business. 

The FATF does not need to go far; it should only trace the overseas assets of some of the Pakistani ex-army generals including Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Gen. Kayani,  Gen. Jahangir Karamat, Gen. Mirza Aslam Baig and Gen. Asim Saleem Bajwa how these generals have misused their power to commit every robbery and corruption –  How they’ve laundered billions of Pakistani rupees into dollars and shifted the black money abroad and how they’ve fooled the civilized world, including the United States, in the name of the war on terror by turning terrorism into a lucrative business and money earning industry?

In the process, they will also learn how Pakistani generals have turned occupied Balochistan into an “efficient” delivery corridor of billions of dollars’ drugs from Afghanistan to the rest of the world against the will of Baloch and how they’ve entrapped Afghans in a stupid war thereby exploiting and exporting their minerals resources with the fake name of Pakistani brand.

The economic interests top the list in Pakistan’s proxy war against Afghanistan, besides many other political motives behind terror catastrophes in Afghanistan that have directly benefited Pakistani security forces. That is why they are hatching each passing day a new kind of conspiracy to perpetuate their terrorism in Afghanistan.

If the FATF wants to stop Pakistan from supporting terrorism, it must ensure two more things: first, to bring to justice the heads and sponsors of those terrorists who were killed and captured in Afghanistan and Kashmir and secondly ensure that all terrorists are referred to the International Court of Justice because they’ve been designated as global terrorists by the UN Security Council.

We are convinced that if the FATF ensures the accountability of the masterminds of the terrorists in Afghanistan, Kashmir and around the world who are linked to and centered in Pakistan, at least fifty to sixty percent of all such crimes in the world could be reduced. This is what the FATF is trying to control. Otherwise, Pakistan will not only maintain the financial support and political backing of these terrorists at the state level but will also try new ways to mislead the world.

In conclusion, it is enough to say that if a state can terrorize its citizens, how can one expect it to have mercy on others? Hence, we strongly argue that blacklisting Pakistan is the best solution to contain it until it has practically given up all forms of sponsorship of terrorists.