MATRIX Report
Pakistan is gradually implementing the 27-point Action Plan that it had agreed with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in June 2018.
On July 3, the Punjab Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD), one of the four provincial terror watchdogs, booked top 13 leaders of the banned Jamaatud Dawa (JuD), including its chief Hafiz Saeed and his deputy Abdul Rehman Makki, in nearly two dozen cases for terror financing and money laundering under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.
CTD officials told media that the “JuD was financing terrorism from the massive funds collected through non-profit organisations and trusts including Al-Anfaal Trust, Dawatul Irshad Trust, Muaz Bin Jabal Trust.”
It is worth recalling that point 17 and 18 of the FATF Action Plan directly relate not only to JuD but to six other designated terror outfits Da’esh, Al-Qaeda, Falahe Insaniat Foundation (FiF), Lashkare Taiba (LeT), Jaishe Mohammad (JeM), the Haqqani Network (HQN), and persons affiliated with the Taliban.
Under the plan Pakistan is required to “Demonstrate that LEAs (Law enforcement agencies) are identifying and investigating the widest range of TF (terror financing) activity (e.g. domestic or transnational provision, collection, movement or use of funds). Particular focus should be on key aspects of the TF risk profile including cash smuggling, illegal MVTS, narcotics trafficking, misuse of non-profit organisations (NPOs), proceeds of smuggling including natural resources, as well as funding the terrorist groups.
The point 18 underscores that by end September Pakistani officials must “demonstrate that TF investigations and prosecutions target designated persons and entities, and persons and entities acting on behalf of or at the direction of the designated persons or entities”.
All the aforementioned non-profit organisations were banned in April as the CTD during detailed investigations found that they had links with the JuD and its top leadership, accused of financing terrorism by building huge assets/properties from the collected funds in Pakistan.
