ISLAMABAD: NEW DELHI: In a clear snub to the international community, the Jaamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and the Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF), led by Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed, have been removed from the list of outfits proscribed by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), as Pakistan’s new government failed to extend the ban.
In February, under international pressure, including a freeze on aid from the United States to Pakistan, former president Mamnoon Hussain had signed an ordinance amending the country’s Anti-Terrorism Act to include entities banned by the UNSC.
That list included the JuD and the FIF along with the Lashkar-e-Taiba, the al-Qaeda, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, and the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, among others. The ordinance came days before a Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meeting in Paris, where Pakistan feared being moved to the ‘grey list’ for insufficient action against terror groups.
Saeed had challenged the ban, and at a hearing on Thursday, his counsel informed the Islamabad High Court that the presidential ordinance had lapsed in September and had never been extended. The court then ruled that the petition was pointless because the ordinance itself had lapsed. A report in Pakistani Daily Dawn, said according to a list updated on September 5 on the National Counter Terrorism Authority’s website, the JuD and the FIF are not among the 66 organisations banned. However, the two are “under watch by the ministry of interior,” it said.
“Perhaps Imran feels emboldened by the Saudi aid of $6 billion, which will help tide over the immediate financial crisis that Pakistan faces. But the FATF or the international community will certainly not take kindly to the delisting of Saeed’s outfits,” an Indian official remarked.