To prevent a demotion from the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) grey record to the blacklist, Pakistan has issued an order for full compliance with UN Security Council sanctions against Afghan Taliban and groups associated with the militant group.

The UN sanctions list covers Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, head of Taliban’s political office in Qatar, who negotiated a peace deal with the US and signed it on February 29 in Doha.

“The sanctions are being implemented by Pakistan in compliance with the relevant UNSC resolutions and we hope that other countries will also follow suit,” Pakistan’s Foreign Office said in a statement quoted by Pakistan’s Daily Times.

“The SRO issued by Pakistan on 18 August 2020 only consolidates and documents the previously announced SROs as a procedural measure and does not reflect any change in the Sanctions List or sanction measures,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Zahid Chaudhri said in statement he shared with local journalists quoted by VOA.

The sanctions are against 88 individuals associated with different terrorist groups, including Daesh, al-Qaeda, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and the Afghan Taliban, Pakistani media reported.  

The Pakistani government has also blocked the bank accounts and properties of individuals across the country, the reports said. 

The individuals have also been banned from traveling abroad by declaring their passports illegal.  

Pakistan submitted its initial draft report to the joint group of FATF earlier this month that showed compliance of the remaining 13 points out of 27 action points regarding terror funding, ahead of the plenary meet in October.  

The move comes at a time that Mullah Baradar, who heads the Taliban’s political office in Qatar is expected to attend intra-Afghan negotiations with a team from the Government of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan after the prisoner release by the Kabul government is completed.