Pakistan bans several charity organizations

By Islamuddin Sajid

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AA) - Pakistan on Saturday banned several charity organizations for their links with banned outfits in the country, an official statement said.

“The Ministry of Interior has proscribed 10 entities for being affiliated with Jamat-ud-Dawah, Falah-e-Insaniyat and Jaish-e-Muhammad groups,” the ministry said in a statement.

According to the statement, the organizations which have been banned by the government are, Al-Anfal Trust, Idara-e-Khidmat Khalaq, Al-Dawat-ul-Irshad, Al-Hamd Trust, Mosque and Welfare Trust, Al-Madinah Foundation, Muaz-bin-Jabal Education Trust, Al-Eesar Foundation, Al-Rehmat Trust Organization and Al-Furqan Trust.

On March 5, Pakistan blacklisted Jamat-ud-Dawah -- a group accused by India of being behind the 2009 Mumbai attacks that killed over 150 people -- and its affiliated charity group Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation.

Since then, the government has also taken control of religious seminaries in the northeastern cites of Lahore and Bahawalpur claimed to have serve as the headquarters of Jamat-ud-Dawah and Jaish-e-Muhammad, which has been banned in Pakistan since 2002.

According to the ministry, Islamabad has also frozen the assets of dozens of banned groups and individuals across the country under a United Nations Security Council order.

In June last year, Pakistan was placed on a gray list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global money-laundering watchdog, for “strategic deficiencies” in its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing frameworks”.

In March this year, the FATF was called on Islamabad to move quickly in implementing its action plan to address its strategic deficiencies until the end of May 2019.