Yesterday the Pakistan High Commissioner said there is no ban on the groups, only an assets freeze, which contradicts news reports from Pakistan of an official ban being announced?
Let me explain. There is a ban. In December 2008 the U.N.’s al-Qaeda committee listed the JuD and Hafiz Saeed on its banned list. As soon as that intimation was received we proscribed JuD and Hafiz Saeed. This proscription means three things: Their funds are frozen and bank accounts are frozen, there is an arms embargo and they can’t procure weapons, and they can’t travel outside Pakistan.
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They have a big centre in Muridke, which is now run by the Punjab government. Your people keep screaming… how come he is free? how come he speaks freely? I think you need to check what the resolution asks us to do. We are not in violation of the resolution, and we are taking care of all the aspects we are supposed to. There is nothing in the resolution that asks us to detain them.
Well if holding a rally entails raising funds, that would be a violation, but certainly that is not happening through banking channels, that we are sure of. Informally, while the government checks that, sometimes they hold rallies with other people, and they may not need to have fund raising by Hafiz Saeed.
So there is no new ban as reports suggest?
There is no new ban. I don’t know why these reports came out. I have clarified that these actions were taken in 2008.
Can you confirm a U.N. monitoring group will visit Pakistan this week to look into implementation of the UNSC resolution?
They will visit a number of countries. These are routine visits; they are not on site inspections. They will be travelling to 7 or 8 countries. It’s a consultative mechanism, not some kind of enquiry.
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