ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly of Pakistan completed its five-year constitutional term on Thursday without passing a law to extend a permanent ban on outfits proscribed by the UN Security Council (UNSC).
Pakistan’s President Mamnoon Hussain promulgated an anti-terrorism (amendment) ordinance on February 9 to enable the authorities to act against the UNSC-proscribed individuals and outfits.
A presidential ordinance can be promulgated for 120 days and that period will expire on June 9, leaving a legal void that can make it difficult for authorities to act against groups such as Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF) and Lashkar-e-Taiba of Hafiz Saeed.
The president had issued the ordinance just days ahead of a meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) — an inter-governmental body that monitors money laundering and terror financing — in Paris earlier this year.
On February 23, the FATF meeting decided that Pakistan was to be placed on its so-called grey list from June this year, though Islamabad was asked to submit an action plan of how it wanted to act against proscribed militant factions and curb terror financing before then.
Talking to Arab News on Thursday, State Minister for Finance Rana Muhammad Afzal Khan said that Pakistan had submitted its action plan with the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering last week in Bangkok, adding that a revised document would be submitted by June 11.
“Minor changes have been suggested in the action plan and we will submit a final document soon,” he said.
Asked about the legislation against proscribed outfits, he said: “We have taken enough measures and Pakistan will hopefully be off the grey list of FATF within a year.”
Khan parried questions about the fate of UNSC-proscribed outfits such as JuD, LeT and FIF. “I cannot comment on it now,” he said.
The minister, however, confirmed that Pakistan’s new action plan would be discussed in the FATF meeting in Paris scheduled to be held on June 23.
In the second week of April, Zafarullah Khan, a barrister and special assistant to the prime minister on law, told Arab News that a draft bill was ready to replace the presidential ordinance that banned Jamaat-ud-Dawa and other UNSC-proscribed groups.
“The bill would be tabled in the National Assembly within a week for passage,” he had said, though the government failed to introduce it in parliament.
Security analysts and international affairs experts say the government’s reluctance to extend a permanent ban on outfits such as JuD is bound to create problems for the country at international forums such as the FATF.
“This will give credence to the viewpoint of the US, India and other countries at the FATF meeting that Pakistan is not serious in handling the UN-proscribed organizations,” Tahir Malik, professor of international relations at the National University of Modern Languages in Islamabad, told Arab News.
He said that the interim government should ensure effective measures against proscribed groups before sending a delegation to Paris to defend the country’s action plan.
“Outfits like Jamaat-ud-Dawa have become a liability for Pakistan and we need to get rid of them as soon as possible to restore our dignity in international forums,” he said.