ISLAMABAD – UN Security Council team will visit the country this week foran assessment of Islamabad’s compliance with the world body’s sanctionsregime.
The two-day visit of the UN Security Council’s sanctions monitoring teamwill begin on Thursday.
“The monitoring team of the UNSC 1267 Sanctions Committee will be here onJanuary 25 and 26,” a senior Pakistani official was quoted as saying byDawn.
The UN monitoring team’s visit is taking place amid increasing pressure onPakistan from the U.S. with respect to the inadequate implementation of thesanctions on Saeed and entities linked to him.
However, Pakistani officials, insist that the trip is a routine visit.
Saeed was listed under UN Security Council Resolution 1267 in December 2008.
On Friday, the US State Department said it has told clearly to Islamabadthat Saeed is a “terrorist” and should be prosecuted reacting strongly toPakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s remarks that there was nocase against the Mumbai attack mastermind.
State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said: “He is listed by theUNSC 1267, the Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee for targeted sanctions due tohis affiliation with Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is a designated foreign terrororganisation.”
“We believe that he should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,”Nauert had said.
Saeed, the chief of the Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD), was released from housearrest in Pakistan in November.
The JuD is believed to be the front organisation for the LeT which isresponsible for carrying out the Mumbai attack that killed 166 people. Ithas been declared as a foreign terrorist organisation by the U.S. in June2014.
“The terms of reference of the monitoring team for Pakistan visit are notpublicly known, but as per its general mandate it assists the 1267Committee in keeping an eye on the freezing of the financial assets oflisted persons and entities and checking provision of training and othermaterial to them and their travel,” the paper said.
The UNSC monitoring team intimates instances of non-compliance to thecommittee through its reports. At the same time it also advises and assistsmember states on implementation of the regime.
Pakistan has remained under the Financial Action Task Force scanner overallegations by the U.S about the UNSC sanctions not being fullyimplemented, the paper said.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury has designated Saeed as a SpeciallyDesignated Global Terrorist, and the U.S., since 2012, has offered a USD 10million reward for information that brings Saeed to justice.