Pakistan attorney general says another notification needed to ban JuD, FiF

The Pakistan government will have to issue another notification to formally ban the JuD and FIF despite the amendment of the Anti-Terrorism Act to list groups sanctioned by the UN Security Council, attorney general Ashtar Ausaf Ali has said.

After the president issued an ordinance on February 9 to amend the law to list groups such as the Jamaat-ud-Dawah and Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation, the interior ministry issued a notification the following day to freeze and take over the assets of both the groups.

However, Ali told The News daily that a notification from the interior ministry is required to formally ban both



groups.

The notification for seizing the assets of the JuD and FIF, both linked to alleged Mumbai attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed, did not place the groups in Schedule I of Anti-Terrorism Act, a legal requirement for a formal ban. Since this formality has not been completed, the police too cannot take legal action against both groups, the daily reported.

"Although the federal government has decided to freeze the assets of JuD and FIF through the law, it does not empower the provincial police to register cases against their activists. So we've taken over their assets but not registered cases against their activists," a senior police officer told The News.