Unveiling shocking revelations, Hafiz Saeed’s JuD and FIF are not listed under banned terrorist outfits

New Delhi, October 26: Turning the pages of the most dreadful banned terrorist outfits, a shocking revelation highlighted Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed-led Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF) are no longer on the list of banned outfits in Pakistan. The presidential ordinance that proscribed them under a UN resolution has lapsed.

 

Former President Mamnoon Hussain, in February this year, had promulgated an ordinance which amended the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1977 which declared JuD and FIF as illegal groups. During a hearing on Thursday of a petition filed by Saeed, his counsel informed the Islamabad High Court (IHC) that the presidential ordinance had lapsed and it had never been extended.

The petitioner had challenged the ordinance under which his organisations had been banned for being on the watch list of the United Nations Security Council. Hafiz Saeed’s counsel Raja Rizwan Abbasi and Sohail Warraich appeared before Justice Aamer Farooq of the IHC. On a query, Saeed's counsel informed the court that the current government did not extend the ordinance or table it in parliament to convert it into an act. Deputy Attorney General Raja Khalid Mehmood Khan confirmed that the ordinance has lapsed.

It was noted that since the petitioner did not cite the interior ministry as a respondent, he could not give a statement unless the petition was amended and the interior secretary added as a party in the petition.

Justice Farooq held that the petition became infructuous since the ordinance challenged by the petitioner has lapsed. The judge disposed of the petition with an observation that in case the government renewed this ordinance, the petitioner was at liberty to file another petition against the promulgation of the law.

The petitioner claimed that the promulgation of the ordinance was not only prejudicial to the sovereignty but also contradictory to the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution. He said that any law which was violative of constitutional provisions was liable to be struck down.

According to a list updated on September 5 on the National Counter Terrorism Authority’s website, 66 organisations have been banned in the Pakistan and the JuD and FIF are not among them.