Pak promulgates ordinance, includes JuD, FiF among banned groups

Pakistan President Mamnoon Hussain has promulgated an ordinance to amend the country’s Anti-Terrorism Act to list groups sanctioned by the UN Security Council — including the Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) and the Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF) — as terror organisations.

The ordinance promulgated late last week was made public on Monday. Under the existing provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Act, groups sanctioned by the UN Security Council were not automatically listed as terror organisations in Pakistan. The ordinance amends Sections 11B and 11EE to include groups that have been sanctioned by the UN Security Council.

The move came a week ahead of a crucial meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on terror financing in Paris, that will assess Pakistan’s efforts to choke funding to the Lashkar-e-Taiba, JuD, and LeT founder Hafiz Saeed.

The JuD and FiF had not been banned by Pakistan, even though the United States and the UN had sanctioned them after the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Both groups were on a “watch list” maintained by Pakistan’s National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA).

JuD was put on the watch list soon after the Mumbai attacks and FiF was included in the list in 2012.

The ordinance will also have an impact on the al-Qaeda linked al-Akhtar Trust and al-Rasheed Trust which had already been sanctioned by the UN.