ISLAMABAD: The Sen­ate Standing Committee on Interior on Friday criticised the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) president for refusing to take action against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on a complaint lodged by the committee chairman, and asked why the international body was taking action against Pakistan.

FATF 'grey list': Pakistan gets time, but not out of the woods yet

The committee, in a meeting held at the Parliament House and chaired by Senator Rehman Malik, condemned the announcement by India’s minister for water that his country would block water flow (of three rivers) to Pakistan.

“The committee appeals to the World Bank to take notice of this blockade of water flow by India, which is a violation of the Indus Waters Treaty, signed in 1960,” a resolution adopted by the committee said.

The Senate committee also approved another resolution rejecting India’s “baseless allegations and threats” against Pakistan after the Pulwama attack.

“The Senate Standing Committee on Interior condemns the recent statement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for straightaway accusing Pakistan of [being involved in] the Pulwama attack, the allegation levelled after a few minutes to the incident,” the resolution said.

The resolution said the Senate committee rejected India’s baseless allegations against Pakistan, recalling that Islamabad had already denied this allegation and even had offered help and support in an investigation into the attack. “We demand...India...provide actionable intelligence and evidence enabling Pakistan to investigate the role of any non-state actor from this side,” the resolution said.

Senator Malik told the committee that he had written a letter to FATF President Marshall Bill­ingslea, asking him to take action against the Indian prime minister for protecting international fugitives involved in credit fraud, money laundering and terrorism financing.

Mr Malik said he had explained in the letter that PM Modi was abetting money launderers and financing the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a terrorist organisation.

However, he said that the FATF president wrote in his reply that the FATF had no investigative functions as it was a policy-making body working to generate political will to bring about legislative and regulatory reforms to curb money laundering and terrorism financing.

Expressing disappointment over the reply, Mr Malik said: “If the FATF has no investigative functions and is reluctant to take any action against an individual — PM Narendra Modi for terror financing — then how it is taking actions against Pakistan — being a sovereign state.”

It was decided that the Senate committee would frame a rejoinder to the FATF president’s reply.

Published in Dawn, February 23rd, 2019