ISLAMABAD, Dec 4: A seven-member United Nations committee seeking sanctions against Al Qaeda and Taliban will arrive here on Friday on a two-day visit for talks with the authorities, an interior ministry source told Dawn on Thursday.
The main purpose of the committee’s visit is to monitor the activities of Al Qaeda and Taliban and their nexus in Pakistan, the source said.
The committee, headed by Mali’s ambassador to UN, will call on interior minister Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat to discuss various issues.
The source said the foreign ministry had arranged the visit and finalised the schedule of the meetings of the committee, formed by the UN to monitor links of Al Qaeda and Taliban and impose embargoes against them and other organisations supporting them.
He said the committee was also likely to meet parliamentarians, officials of law enforcement agencies and senior bureaucrats.
The committee, he added, had suggested to the Pakistan government to sever all international links of pro-Al Qaeda and pro-Taliban organisations.
It had also desired that bank accounts of these organisations be frozen so that they could not continue their activities based on extremism and hatred, he further said.
The government banned six religious outfits last month, increasing the total of such organisations banned by it to 10. Four jihadi organisations were banned last year.
The government has sealed the offices of these organisations besides freezing their bank accounts, the source said.
