Revised and rationalised: NACTA set to make 4th Schedule list public

ISLAMABAD: The National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta) is planning to make public the first-ever consolidated Fourth Schedule list, shared with it by the provincial governments recently.

The provinces revised and rationalised the list before handing it over to Nacta, sources told The Express Tribune. Previously there was no such list and ones held by provinces had many lacunas.

A few months ago, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had decided to hand over the rationalised list to Nacta.

Previously, it bore names of prominent politicians and religious scholars which might have caused an uproar if it had been made public.



The list contains names of more than 8,000 fourth schedulers, most of whom belong to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

Currently, K-P has nearly 4,000 fourth schedulers, constituting nearly 50% of the total number of fourth schedulers across the country.

Nacta had asked all provinces to meet the terms of Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) pertaining to fourth schedulers and asked them to implement them in true sprit as required by the law.

Sources said that relevant authorities were monitoring accounts of all such persons in addition to probing their source of funds. Authorities concerned, sources said, were also determining to what extent these accounts were being used in funding extremism or terrorism.

If it was confirmed that these accounts were being used for unwanted activities, the authorities concerned might opt to freeze them. Blocking of national identity cards or passports of fourth schedulers was also possible, sources further contended.



Under the law, fourth schedulers’ movements were also restricted.

Under different sections of ATA, if the federal or provincial governments received information from any source that any person was an activist, office-bearer or an associate of any organisation suspected of being involved in terrorism or sectarianism might keep the suspect under observation. Names of such persons were placed in a list known as the Fourth Schedule.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 27^th, 2016.