There is no new ban on the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) or Hafiz Saeed, confirmed Pakistan’s External Affairs Ministry spokesperson on Saturday.
Speaking to The Hindu , spokesperson Tasneem Aslam said: “There is no new ban. I don’t know why these reports came out,” she said over the telephone from Islamabad, referring to news stories that Pakistan had placed a new ban on the JuD. “I have clarified that all these actions were taken in 2008.”
Significantly, Ms. Aslam’s comments and the reports come just ahead of a visit by a U.N. monitoring committee that will be looking closely at the “freeze on assets” of these and other terrorist groups that are on the “Al Qaeda Sanctions list.”
U.N. sources confirmed to The Hindu that a two-man team from the ‘Analytical support and Sanctions Monitoring Committee’ will travel to Kabul and Islamabad in the last week of January, in order to submit a report to the U.N. Security Council later this year.
The sources said the specific mission of the U.N. team will be to verify on the ground that the government was “fulfilling its U.N. obligations on freezing the assets of the designated entities, ensure a travel ban on them, as well as an arms embargo.” In an email reply to The Hindu’s queries, Alexander Evans, the head of the U.N. team, said he could not confirm the visit “not the least due to security reasons.”
However, Ms. Aslam confirmed that the team will be visiting Pakistan shortly, but denied that this was “an enquiry.” “They will visit a number of countries is my understanding. These are routine visits, they are not ‘on site inspections.’ It’s a consultative mechanism, not some kind of enquiry,” she said.
The visit of the monitoring committee, however, does come at a significant time. On December 17, 2014, the U.N. Security Council issued fresh notices to Interpol and other agencies, redesignating Saeed and the JuD as banned entities sanctioned in the Al Qaeda/Taliban list under resolution 1267, just a few days after Saeed and the JuD held a big public rally in Lahore.
During his visit to New Delhi earlier this month, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon told The Hindu that he had “taken note” of the JuD rally and “called on Pakistan’s government to abide by its obligations to the U.N..”
U.N. sources have also confirmed that the monitoring committee will look closer at the Pakistan special court proceedings against Lashkar-e-Taiba commander and 26/11 accused Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi during the visit as Lakhvi is also on the sanctions list. According to Indian officials, both India and the U.S. were among a group of countries that had handed over “fresh evidence” to the U.N., hoping to put pressure on Pakistan to act against Saeed, Lakhvi and the JuD.
When asked from where Saeed and the JuD, that have planned a “million march” in Karachi on Sunday, received funds to organise their public rallies, Ms. Aslam said: “Well, if holding a rally entails raising funds, that would be a violation, but certainly that is not happening through banking channels, that we are sure of.”
Pakistan may face closer scrutiny on the issue, however, from the U.S. as well as the U.N. Before leaving for India, U.S. President Barack Obama said in an interview to India Today magazine that “safe havens within Pakistan are not acceptable and those behind the Mumbai terrorist attack must face justice.”
