Islamabad: The crucial plenary meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) that will decide whether or not Pakistan had taken enough measures against money laundering and terror financing to be taken off the global watchdog’s grey list is set to formally start on Monday in Paris.

Pakistani officials are fairly optimistic about exiting the grey list saying that there has been significant progress in meeting the financial watchdog’s requirements, The Express Tribune reported.

In February 2018, the FATF had found serious deficiencies in the country’s anti-money laundering and combating financing of terrorism regimes and gave Pakistan a 27-point action plan to exit the grey list.

In October last year, it gave another warning to Islamabad to show full compliance by February 2020.

During the meetings of the Asia-Pacific Joint Group of the FATF in Beijing last month, Pakistan was found to have largely addressed 14 of the 27 points in the action plan. There was partial compliance in 11 of them. However, Pakistani officials fear that the FATF might declare two action points related to cash couriers and convictions in terror-financing cases non-compliant.

The FATF says Pakistan should adequately identify, assess and understand risks associated with militant groups allegedly operating in Pakistan such as Islamic State group, al Qaeda, Jamaatud Dawa (JuD), Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM).

An anti-terrorism court in Lahore has recently handed down a jail term of five and a half years to JuD chief Hafiz Saeed and his aide for terror financing. The conviction is being seen as a crucial development in connection with the FATF review.

On Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan while addressing a joint sitting of the Pakistani parliament said his country would help Islamabad stay off the FATF’s blacklist at the Paris meeting. Support from Turkey and longtime allies China, Malaysia, and Saudi Arabia could help Pakistan remain off the blacklist. A minimum of three votes is required for any country to escape the blacklisting.

If it joined the blacklist alongside Iran and North Korea, Islamabad would face sanctions and economic setbacks at a time when its economy is struggling with a balance of payment crisis.