Pakistan removes thousands of names from terror watch list: Report

Pakistan has removed thousands of names from its terrorist watch list in what the country says is an effort to meet its obligations ahead of a new round of assessments by a global anti-money-laundering watchdog.

The so-called proscribed persons list, which is maintained by Pakistan's National Counter Terrorism Authority, or NACTA, is intended in part to help financial institutions avoid doing business with or processing transactions of suspected terrorists.

The Wall Street Journal, in one of its reports, mentioned that the list, which in 2018 contained about 7,600 names, has been reduced to under 3,800 in the past 18 months. About 1,800 of the names have been removed since the beginning of March, according to data collected by Castellum.AI, a New York-based regulatory technology company.

No public explanation was given for the removals as they were made, but a Pakistani official said in an email interview that they are part of the country's ongoing efforts to comply with a commitment to strengthen its counterterrorism safeguards.

Global standards call for countries to communicate de-listings to the financial sector immediately upon taking such action. Pakistan, which designates entities and persons with suspected links to terrorism under its Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997, hasn't historically done so.

On the issue, the Pakistani official, Tahir Akbar Awan, a section officer with the Ministry of Interior, said the list had become "bloated with multiple inaccuracies" because it contained names of individuals who had died and those who may have committed crimes but weren't associated with a designated terrorist group.

The Financial Action Task Force, a Paris-based watchdog that sets global standards and monitors countries' anti-money-laundering and counterterrorism-financing policies, is scheduled to evaluate Pakistan's progress in June, this year, although measures intended to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus could delay the assessment.

Pakistan has been under increased monitoring from the FATF since June 2018. If it fails to make progress on an action plan developed by the organization, FATF members could vote to further restrict the country's access to the international financial system.

In February, the group said Pakistan had largely addressed about half of the action items it had agreed to implement to prevent additional sanctions.

Several of the names removed from Pakistan's list appear to be aliases for designated terrorists listed on US or United Nations sanctions lists, according to Castellum.AI. The lack of certain identifiers--such as dates of birth or, in some cases, a national ID number--on NACTA's list makes it difficult to know for sure, sanctions experts said.

-ANI

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