The Senate Foreign Affairs Committee has been informed that Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET) is declared a banned organisation in Pakistan and will not be allowed to operate. However, the Filah-i-Insaniat Foundation (FIF) is very much functional and Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) has been put under observation, but has not been banned as yet. Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry informed the committee that Pakistan was obligated to take action against the outfit in line with the United Nations (UN) pressure to take action against them.
Following the December 2001 attack on the Indian parliament, the government of Pakistan banned LeT on January 14, 2002. After the proscription, the organisation continued to operate, first under the banner of JuD and then the FIF. There is evidence that the Lashkar survives on the JuD for its finances. The JuD is a largely charitable organization and any charge of linking it to terror financing has been denied outright. There is no doubt about the expansive charitable and relief operations run by the JuD, as they are the first organization to spring into action in an event of a disaster. "The UN put sanctions on Jamaat-ud-Dawa but we were never told what terrorism we do, and neither has anyone ever proven any allegation of terrorism against us," said Abdur Rauf, head of JuD's humanitarian relief operations. Well for one the JuD has openly called for Ghazwa-e-Hind i.e. open war with India, and secondly, Hafiz Saeed, the JuD chief has a $10 million bounty for any evidence that can lead to his conviction. He’s safe because the government has protected him by saying that there are no pending charges against him.
This is perhaps the crux of the matter. If there is no hard evidence of the JuD financing the LeT, then it is unfair to the affectees in far flung areas as it will deprive them of the aid that they receive in events of emergency and otherwise. But lets not forget the long-term consequences of radicalisation and recruitment from the northern areas. The government must come up with hard evidence to establish whether the organization is indeed financing terrorist activities and if it is then it should be banned once and for all.
The government is going hard after even the smallest most controversial issues- from Youtube to foreign NGOs to banning media from covering banned organisations (like the JuD). It is doubtful that JuD is doing less damage than these other demons. Pakistan under a UN Resolution agreed to ban JUD and FIF. Recently we have lost our seat at the UNHRC and the UN is monitoring finances of JUD and FIF closely. Why the JuD is worth the trouble is beyond comprehension.