- FO spokesperson says govt has frozen bank accounts of JuD and imposed travel restrictions on Hafiz Saeed
- Says Pakistan’s decision to ban JuD driven by UN obligations and not under pressure from any other quarter, including US and India
- JuD defiant, says will continue its ‘charity work’ as govt has succumbed to US pressure to ‘please India’
Pakistan on Thursday said the bank accounts of Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) have been frozen and foreign travel restrictions have been imposed on Hafiz Saeed, the organisation’s leader. However, the JuD remains defiant to the ban, saying it will continue its ‘charity work’ regardless.
“Pakistan took this decision under the UN obligation and not under pressure from any other quarter including John Kerry,” Foreign Office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam said in a briefing at the Foreign Ministry.
Aslam said that assets of all banned organisations in the country have been frozen and that the country is taking action against terrorists with discrimination. She said that the Haqqani Network has also been banned, however the organisation does not have bank accounts in Pakistan. She further reiterated that the decision has been taken in Pakistan’s own interest and not due to external pressure.
The US and India both have always considered JuD, the ‘charity’ organisation run by Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, as the sister organisation of banned Lashkar-e-Taiba, a militant outfit accused of masterminding the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
An Interior Ministry official said that the other organisations included in the list of proscribed outfits included Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation, Ummah Tameer-i-Nau, Haji Khairullah Haji Sattar Money Exchange, Rahat Limited, Roshan Money Exchange, Al Akhtar Trust and Al Rashid Trust.
JuD REJECTS BAN:
An official statement by JuD accused Pakistan of having banned the organisation under pressure from the United States to “please India”.
The JuD spokesperson defended the group, saying the Lahore High Court and the Supreme Court had in the past issued verdicts in favour of allowing JuD to operate in the country, thus the outfit would continue on its mission in light of the courts’ rulings. Sources said that the organisation would also move the Supreme Court to challenge the ban.
The Supreme Court in May 2010 upheld a Lahore High Court (LHC) order of releasing Hafiz Saeed, who is accused of masterminding the Mumbai attacks.
A three-judge bench headed by Justice Nasirul Mulk dismissed appeals filed by the federal and Punjab governments citing their failure to produce incriminating evidence against Hafiz Saeed.
“We do appreciate that the world has changed after the event of 9/11 and that people are being detained at Bagram prison in Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay in Cuba or Poland, but there is a burden on us that we could not allow detention on speculations since our Constitution guarantees certain rights to people like liberty and access to fair trial,” Justice Jawad S. Khwaja, a member of the bench, had observed in 2010.
“Should we throw out all rights merely because someone in the Punjab secretariat is saying differently?” the judge had asked.
Justice Nasirul Mulk had observed that Hafiz Saeed was not a convicted person and not under detention, but had been in preventive custody since Dec 12, 2008.
The self-styled charity organisation has been outlawed for the second time on Thursday, a move its members say is the result of international pressure and the recent visit of US Secretary of State John Kerry to Pakistan.
DECISION WIDE:
Commenting on the ban on JuD, Pakistan Today Editor Arif Nizami said that although the government’s decision was a step in the right direction, yet the timing of its announcement just a day before the visit of US President Barack Obama to India had made it seem that Pakistan had succumbed to American pressure and was a bid to please India.
“Several security analysts are linking the government’s decision with the American president’s visit to India and are criticising Obama for ignoring Pakistan during his tour whereas the US has made it clear that it has separate relations with the two countries and Obama’s visit should be seen in that perspective,” Mr Nizami said during his talk show DNA on Channel 24.
He said that everyone in Pakistan knew what JuD and other religious outfits were doing in the guise of charity and those criticising the ban on Islamist organisations should understand that it was in Pakistan’s own interest to keep itself aligned with international powers.
Also speaking on the show, noted security analyst Gen (r) Talat Masood said the ban on JuD and other Islamist groups was a welcome move as time has come for Pakistan to rid itself of outfits which had caused colossal losses to the country.
