Matrix Report
Pakistan’s Foreign Office has said that Prime Minister Imran Khan will meet US President Donald Trump on July 22 in Washington D.C. Foreign Office spokesperson Dr. Faisal, during his weekly media briefing, said that PM Khan was visiting the US on President Trump’s invitation.
According to Dr Faisal, the meeting between PM Khan and President Trump will focus on ways of improving Pak-US ties. This is PM Khan’s first visit to the US since coming to power last year.
In March this year, President Trump had said that he “hoped to meet Pakistani leaders soon as he acknowledged that relations between the two countries were now very good”.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had also recently told the media that PM Khan was invited to visit Washington in June, however, the budget session delayed the PM’s visit.
It is worth noting that the US expects Pakistan to help with the ongoing Afghan reconciliation process, which also involves bringing the Taliban to the dialogue table. Hence, the meeting comes at a very important time for Pakistan.
On Tuesday, in what looked like a goodwill gesture, the United States listed the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) as “global terrorists”. Pakistan welcomed the US decision stating that “those glorifying these acts of terror against Pakistan are held accountable and brought to justice”.
On the other hand, Pakistan is also gradually implementing the 27-point Action Plan that it had agreed with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in June 2018.
On July 3, the Punjab Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD), one of the four provincial terror watchdogs, booked top 13 leaders of the banned Jamaatud Dawa (JuD), including its chief Hafiz Saeed and his deputy Abdul Rehman Makki, in nearly two dozen cases for terror financing and money laundering under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.
CTD officials told media that the “JuD was financing terrorism from the massive funds collected through non-profit organisations and trusts including Al-Anfaal Trust, Dawatul Irshad Trust, Muaz Bin Jabal Trust.”
It is worth recalling that point 17 and 18 of the FATF Action Plan directly relate not only to JuD but to six other designated terror outfits Da’esh, Al-Qaeda, Falahe Insaniat Foundation (FiF), Lashkare Taiba (LeT), Jaishe Mohammad (JeM), the Haqqani Network (HQN), and persons affiliated with the Taliban.
Under the plan Pakistan is required to “Demonstrate that LEAs (Law enforcement agencies) are identifying and investigating the widest range of TF (terror financing) activity (e.g. domestic or transnational provision, collection, movement or use of funds). Particular focus should be on key aspects of the TF risk profile including cash smuggling, illegal MVTS, narcotics trafficking, misuse of non-profit organisations (NPOs), proceeds of smuggling including natural resources, as well as funding the terrorist groups.
The point 18 underscores that by end September Pakistani officials must “demonstrate that TF investigations and prosecutions target designated persons and entities, and persons and entities acting on behalf of or at the direction of the designated persons or entities”.
All the aforementioned non-profit organisations were banned in April as the CTD during detailed investigations found that they had links with the JuD and its top leadership, accused of financing terrorism by building huge assets/properties from the collected funds in Pakistan.
