ISLAMABAD: The names of Taji Khokhar and his son Farrukh Khokhar have been added to the Fourth Schedule of the Anti-Terrorism Act. With the new addition, the number of people on the list from Islamabad is now 23, including a man who died a few years ago.

After the father and son were released from prison on bail, the interior ministry placed them on the Fourth Schedule, which has been conveyed to the National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta).

“Most of the people on the Fourth Schedule are from religious segments or nationalists as they incite people against the state or spread violence. The Khokhars were put on the list because they are prominent land grabbers. Taji Khokhar uses henchmen to keep the locals, mostly in the rural areas, under his influence,” an official of the interior ministry said.

Khokhars used henchmen to illegally occupy land, influence locals, interior ministry official says

The Fourth Schedule of the ATA is a list of proscribed people, similar to the list of proscribed parties, and both are managed by Nacta after collecting data from the four provinces and the federal areas, including Islamabad and Gilgit-Baltistan.

Names are placed on the Fourth Schedule on files initiated by the Special Branch of the local police and reports are forwarded by the SSP operations to the commissioner of that division, which is in turn forwarded to the home secretary’s office of that province. In the case of Islamabad, the commissioner’s officer forwards the file to the interior secretary.

While most reports are initiated at the local level by the Special Branch, some names are forwarded to the home secretary or the interior ministry by other relevant security agencies. A few cases are even initiated in the home department or the ministry.

The names of Taji and Farrukh Khokhar were forwarded by the interior ministry to the Islamabad police, seeking their past record.

The list also includes the name of Maulana Abdul Aziz of Lal Masjid. He was placed on the list of proscribed persons in early 2015 after he defended the Dec 2014 attack on Army Public School Peshawar and he was later deposed as a cleric of the mosque. Several of his attempts to deliver the Friday sermon or hold conferences in Lal Masjid have been forcibly stopped by the government.

Two outsiders placed on the list from Islamabad include retired Col Nadir and Mohammad Javed, both of whom belong to Danyore in Gilgit and presently live in Islamabad. Col Nadir’s name was forwarded by the security establishment regarding his views on the status of GB.

Though the government has updated the list, the name of Raja Mohammad Ashraf, who died of natural causes more than three years ago, has yet to be removed.

Those on the Fourth Schedule have strict restrictions and cannot leave the district without informing the police, have restrictions on joining public gatherings and owning a bank account, cannot possess arms licences etc. However, the law does allow them to contest elections.

Other proscribed people from Islamabad are Maulana Abdul Razzaq Haideri, Maulana Sohail Ahmed, Allama Sabtain Sherazi, Syed Asghar Abbas Naqvi, Syed Zameer Hussain Shah, Tabbasum Abbas, Abdul Hameed Sabri, Abdul Saboor, Amjad Ali Kiani, Azizur Rehman, Azkar Hussain Jaffri, Ibrahim Ali Haider, Malik Mohammad Nazar, Mohammad Ishaque, Shafiqur Rehman, Sohail Javed Kiani and Zafar Mehmood.

Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2018