Rebel child : People’s Amn Committee mulls legal challenge against ban, says Zafar Baloch

PPP says it has accepted his resignation from the party.

KARACHI:

Senior leaders of the People’s Amn Committee (PAC) plan to challenge in court the government’s decision to ban it.

The home department notification was issued late Monday night. “The move to ban PAC is nothing but succumbing to the blackmail tactics of the Pakistan Peoples Party’s coalition partner,” alleged senior PAC member Zafar Baloch while talking to The Express Tribune on Tuesday. “We will respond to the ban through legal means and are exploring the option of challenging it in court.”

This could, however, put PAC at odds with its own ‘parent’ party, the PPP. “We’re not going to go against the PPP in court,” Baloch clarified. “We will only challenge the ban which we believe has been done to appease the Muttahida Qaumi Movement which recently rejoined the government.” Despite repeated attempts, senior MQM leaders shied away from responding to the allegation when approached by this newspaper.

In the same breath, Baloch said that he continued to maintain his designation as the district south general secretary of the PPP Karachi division. “Yes, I had resigned from the party post at the same time Dr Zulfiqar Mirza announced he was leaving [August 28], but it was not accepted by the party,” he said. However, Baloch’s claim was refuted by PPP Karachi division president Najmi Alam who told The Express Tribune that Zafar Baloch no longer holds any position within the PPP. “Baloch resigned as the general secretary of the PPP south and it was accepted.” Alam also took this opportunity to clarify that contrary to the PAC claims, none of their offices were taken over by the PPP.

A senior home department official said that although the notification was issued on the recommendation of the Sindh government, one must not forget that the decision came from the federal interior ministry headed by Rehman Malik. This was buttressed by the PPP’s Alam who said it was correct that the interior ministry had given the directives to ban the PAC after he consulted the party’s leadership.

The Amn Committee now joins the list of organisations that despite being banned continue to operate in the city under different names. “Under the list of banned organisations prepared in 2002, numerous groups like the Sipah-e-Sahaba, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Jamaatud Dawa were banned,” the home department official said.

But even though there’s a need to revise and update the list, no work has been done on it since then. “Even the Sunni Tehreek continues to be placed on a terrorist watch-list of organisations,” he added.

Did banning the PAC make it easier for the law enforcement authorities to act against PAC members? Pakistan Rangers Brigadier Waseem Ayub described the ban notification as “a political move”. “It doesn’t make a difference to us from the perspective of law enforcement,” he said. “The bottom line is, anyone who is involved in criminal activity, whether that person belongs to banned or unbanned organisation, we will take action against them.” When pressed whether he would now launch a raid against members of PAC, Ayub said, “If they are found in criminal acts, we will respond.”

Published in The Express Tribune, October 12^th, 2011.