The report said that although Pakistan’s laws comply with international anti-money laundering and terrorism financing standards, the “authorities failed to uniformly implement UN sanctions related to designated entities. The FATF had placed Pakistan on its “grey list” in June last year for deficiencies across its antimoney laundering and terror financing regimes

NEW DELHI: A US State Department report on terrorism mandated by the US Congress has pulled up Pakistan for failing to significantly limit terrorist groups Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad from “raising money, recruiting, and training in Pakistan” and allowing “candidates overtly affiliated with LeT front organisations to contest the July 2018 general elections”.

The report, released on Friday last week, said that although Pakistan’s laws comply with international anti-money laundering and terrorism financing standards, the “authorities failed to uniformly implement UN sanctions related to designated entities and individuals such as LeT and its affiliates, which continued to make use of economic resources and raise funds”.

The US report, which comes close on the heels of the ultimatum given by Paris-headquartered anti-money laundering multilateral body Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to Pakistan, also referred to the country’s support to political reconciliation between the Afghanistan government and the Taliban. But it said Pakistan “did not restrict the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network (HQN) from operating in Pakistan-based safe havens and threatening the US and Afghan forces in Afghanistan”.

The FATF had placed Pakistan on its “grey list” in June last year for deficiencies across its antimoney laundering and terror financing regimes, specifically citing concerns over the failure to fully implement the UN Security Council ISIL (Da’esh) and Al Qaeda sanctions regime. The FATF claimed that UN-listed entities, including LeT and its affiliates, were not effectively prohibited from raising funds in Pakistan or being denied financial services. Last month, at its plenary meet, FATF warned Pakistan to swiftly complete the full action plan given to it for checking fund flows to terrorist groups by February 2020 or face blacklisting.