ISLAMABAD – President on Monday signed an ordinance that brings all UNSecurity Council-designated terrorist groups – including Hafiz Saeed ledorganisation, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa – under the ambit of the country’sstringent Anti-Terrorism Act.
Sources in the National Counter-Terrorism Authority (NACTA) confirmed thesigning of the ordinance.
This means that now, under Pakistani law, JuD is a a terroristorgansisation.
The move enables Islamabad to take action against the concerned individualsand organisations – to seal their offices, freeze their bank accounts andkeep a tab on their activities.
Pakistan’s interior, foreign and finance ministries have been notified ofthe ordinance.
NACTA’s counter-terror financing authority will work with concernedauthorities and recommend possible courses of action.
Pakistan’s interior ministry had in January listed Hafiz Saeed’s JuD as oneamong 72 proscribed organisations.
After Saeed was released from house arrest last year, his lawyer requestedthe UN Security Council to remove his name from a list of designatedterrorists, but in vain.