Bank accounts of Afghan nationals to be filtered

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Special meeting regarding NAP also calls for blocking business activities, bank accounts operating without due legal requirements

Also calls for verification of 100 million unverified SIMs within next 85 days after which sale of unverified SIMS will be declared cognizable offence 

The bank accounts of Afghan nationals will be filtered by the financial monitoring unit of the Finance Ministry in coordination with the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and intelligence agencies and all information shall be shared with National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) for scanning all such accounts involved in suspected transactions.

This was decided during a special meeting held at the PM Secretariat to review the implementation of National Action Plan (NAP) to counter terrorism on Friday.

It was also decided during the meeting that all business activities and bank accounts operating without due legal requirements will be blocked. All departments concerned were directed to block the bank accounts/ financial transactions and all kinds of funding of proscribed organisations/ non-governmental organisations (NGOs) or any individuals or organisations linked with militant or terror activities.

A databank and monitoring network is being established for all proscribed organisations so that all such organisations re-emerging secretly or under different names can be shut down.

It was further decided during the meeting to speed up the process of registration of Afghan refugees, and to shift all Afghan refugees back to camps at the earliest.

Chaired by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, the meeting was attended by Information Technology and Telecom State Minister Anusha Rehman Khan, Special Assistants to PM Khawaja Zaheer and Barrister Zafarullah, federal secretaries for interior, finance, law and justice and SAFRON, heads of FIA, Intelligence Bureau (IB), ISI, NACTA, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, Capital Development Authority and Islamabad Police inspector general.

The meeting decided that over 100 million unverified SIMs will be verified within the next 85 days after which the possessing or sale of any unregistered/unverified SIM will be made a cognizable offence.

This will help not in tracking down unverified SIMs connected with terrorism besides curbing massive grey traffic taking place in the communication sector.

The IT Ministry was directed to work in close collaboration with PTA, intelligence agencies and international monitoring outfits to close down all terrorism related websites/ web based messaging services and other terrorism-related material on the internet and social media.

The CDA was directed to chalk out a detailed plan in consultation with police and district administration within a week to identify illegal/ unregistered Afghan Refugees in and around Islamabad in order to facilitate their movement to their camps.

It was further decided to demolish all illegally constructed high structures near sensitive installations in Islamabad.

A detailed discussion took place on madressahs having suspected connections with militancy and terrorism and it was decided to take a final decision on the matter after the meeting with heads of all major madaris bodies of the country on Saturday.