ISLAMABAD: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has prohibited all registered companies from donating cash to entities and individuals listed under the consolidated list issued by the United Nations Security Council’s sanctions committee.

In the notification, issued on the first day of the new year, the corporate sector regulator also stated that the government of Pakistan had already prescribed a penalty of up to Rs10 million for any entities that did not comply with this sanctions regime.

Although UNSC Resolution 1267 of 1999 and other resolutions are concerned with the militant Islamic State group (also known by its Arabic acronym Daesh), Al Qaeda and its associated individuals and entities, insiders said that the action was specific to the Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF), which is listed as an affiliate of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

Although FIF was designated as an alias of the LeT by the US State Department in November 2010, a top-level meeting of officials from various departments and chaired by the prime minister was held on Monday, where it was decided that the decision would be implemented across the country.

Notification issued following high-level meeting led by PM; JuD, FIF officials not officially informed of decision

The meeting, which was attended by officials from the ministries of interior, foreign affairs and finance, as well as representatives of the SECP, Federal Board of Revenue and the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), decided that all the relevant authorities — including those in the financial sector — that are operating under the interior ministry, foreign office, armed forces and the intelligence agencies would exercise their powers to restrict the operations of FIF.

Ostensibly acting on the decisions taken at the meeting, the SECP issued the notification prohibiting financing of entities sanctioned by the UNSC.

The SBP is also expected to issue a similar notification, guiding the banking sector to freeze the accounts of all entities and individuals named in the UNSC list.

In a statement of its own, the interior ministry said that the National Action Plan (NAP) was being implemented across the country, but clarified that no single group or entity was being targeted in the action.

When NAP was unveiled in Dec 2014, one of the bodies formed to ensure its implementation was a committee tasked with dealing with the subject of terror financing. Led by the finance minister, the body included the SBP governor, DG ISI, interior secretary, FBR chairman, finance secretary and the director general of the Federal Investigation Agency.

However, it was not clear whether this was the same body that met on Monday.

No intimation

Incidentally, no official notification or intimation has been conveyed to the management of FIF or the leadership of the JuD.

JuD spokesperson Yahya Mujahid told Dawn that if the government took any action that was merely aimed at pleasing foreign powers, the party would approach the courts.

“Hafiz Mohammad Saeed was detained to please India in the past, and these talks to ban our relief and charity projects are apparently part of that same policy,” he added.

Referring to earlier verdicts of the superior judiciary, where the government had provided no evidence against Hafiz Saeed, he said that FIF was placed under Schedule-II of the Anti Terrorism Act (ATA), which relates to organisations that are on a ‘watch list’, whereas proscribed organisations are placed in Schedule I of the ATA.

Incidentally, in an advertisement released in Aug 2017, asking citizens not to donate money or animal hides to proscribed groups, the interior ministry had included FIF among the list of banned organisations.

However, FIF Chairman Hafiz Abdul Rauf claimed that after the ad was published, the organisation approached the interior ministry, adding that the relevant authorities had clarified that their inclusion in both Schedule I and II of the same list was a mistake.

UN list

The UNSC sanctions list contains the names of 255 individuals and 80 entities, divided among two sections — section A relates to individuals, while section B contains names and aliases of entities and groups.

In this list, the FIF is listed as an allied entity of the LeT, which is listed at serial number 118 on the UNSC list.

The UNSC list also contains the name of Hafiz Mohammad Saeed at serial 263, while another JuD leader, Hafiz Abdul Salam Bhuttavi, appears at serial 307. He was among the founding members of the LeT.

Incidentally, the FIF is a recognised entity in the country, registered as a welfare organisation in Lahore under the The Cooperative Societies Act 1925.According to FIF officials, it also operates a bank account and conducts an annual audit, which is a public document.

“The main point here is that the UNSC list was updated in 2010, but the government failed to prove that FIF had any links with terrorism before any court of the land,” Hafiz Abdul Rauf said.

According to him, FIF has a volunteer force of around 50,000 personnel across the country, and operates 308 ambulances in 31 cities of Pakistan, besides 250 medical centres and 12 hospitals.

However, he said the foundation’s key achievement had been the establishment of 4,300 water projects in Hindu-dominated areas of Tharparkar in Sindh and some parts of Balochistan.

Published in Dawn, January 2nd, 2018