Consultation under way: Islamabad to revise its blacklist of banned outfits

Will reconcile its current list with that of UN

ISLAMABAD:

The Ministry of Interior has decided to consult with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reconciling how to prepare fresh list of proscribed organisations, keeping in mind all the national and international obligations to cope with militant groups in the country.

The development came during an important briefing by the National Counter-Terrorism Authority (Nacta) and National Crisis Management Cell (NCMC) to Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on the progress of National Action Plan (NAP).

He directed the interior secretary to coordinate with the ministry of foreign affairs and reconcile the national list of proscribed organisations under the recommendations set by the United Nations Security Council.



Last month, the government had decided to include 12 more national and international organisations in the old blacklist of proscribed outfits.

The government has arrested more than 2,065 clerics for misusing loudspeakers during the recent crackdown across the country as part of the NAP.

During the meeting, Nisar was informed that 3,265 cases of misuse of loudspeakers have been registered and equipment seized in 1,281 instances. He was further told that 547 cases had been registered for hate speech.

In total, as many as 218,220 suspects had been picked up in 16,344 operations by law enforcers. Of these, 12,462 people had been arrested. Despite the haul, officials found that only 140 of them had links with terrorists.

On this occasion, the interior minister directed that the review meeting should be held on a weekly basis so as to effectively monitor the progress.

Nisar directed the interior ministry to further fine-tune the procedure of proscription and ensure that any proscribed organisations must not be able re-emerge with new name and nomenclature.

The NAP meeting was also told that a bill has been tabled in the National Assembly which, if passed, would make possession of illegal mobile phone SIMs a cognizable offence.

The bill has already been passed on to the relevant sub-committee. A process was also under way to enable Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to block any unwanted activity on social media related to extremism.

In a bid to clamp down on terror funding, Nisar was told that a total of 26 cases have been registered and 32 people have been arrested for hawala, hundi.

While shedding light on the development of a national counter-terrorism narrative, the participants were informed that a draft narrative has already been prepared and would be finalised once it is approved by the prime minister.

Commenting on the security of media houses in the country, the meeting was informed that the process was underway while Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) has established a Panic Button system which has already been installed in 10 media houses.

Security in ICT

During the meeting, the interior minister was told that the ICT had conducted a security audit of 76 important buildings. These buildings were then divided into yellow, green and red category vis-à-vis their security arrangements.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 11^th, 2015.