Pak will not be civilised

This is juvenilia. Whatever Pakistan proposes to do with the terror epi-centres in its own land by amending the terror laws is laughable at best. Coming as it does ahead of the FATF (The Financial Action Task Force) it is just a makeover that the Pakistani government is attempting to. It is more aimed at diverting the international attention from its follies. After all FATF is an inter-governmental body established in 1989 by the Ministers of its Member jurisdictions.

The objectives of the FATF are to set standards and promote effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system. The FATF is therefore a ‘policy-making body’ which works to generate the necessary political will to bring about national legislative and regulatory reforms in these areas.

The FATF has developed a series of recommendations that are recognised as the international standard for combating of money laundering and the financing of terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. They form the basis for a co-ordinated response to these threats to the integrity of the financial system and help ensure a level playing field.

First issued in 1990, the FATF Recommendations were revised in 1996, 2001, 2003 and most recently in 2012 to ensure that they remain up to date and relevant, and they are intended to be of universal application. The FATF monitors the progress of its members in implementing necessary measures, reviews money laundering and terrorist financing techniques and counter-measures and promotes the adoption and implementation of appropriate measures globally.

In collaboration with other international stakeholders, the FATF works to identify national-level vulnerabilities with the aim of protecting the international financial system from misuse. But, to expect Pak to abide by these rules is absurd. A country born out of hatred towards others and out of religious bigotry, it could not be expected of a civilised conduct. After all, it is a nation run by its military and its Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and also by its ‘non-State actors’ which gives its own people a little choice to alter the equations. It is a failed State by all yardsticks.

It is a State that survives by the embrace of the Chinese who have been waging a proxy war against India. Yes. It is not exactly the Pakistanis who are waging a war against India by bleeding it silently during the so-called peace times. If Pakistanis are using their proxies - the non-State actors - essentially to bleed India, it is the Chinese who are using Pakistan to bleed India.

India should realise this paradox and do the needful. It should not allow its suspicion against Pakistani intentions to cloud this reality. It is basically a war with China and it should change its tactics. It is a multi-lateral war. Better be prepared for it. Mounting pressures through international fora on Pakistan will not change its nature. It will only change its colours. No doubt, the FATF action will have a telling effect on Pakistan. India needs to match its words too.