IT is a long-overdue step that the state must take. Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has confirmed in an interview that so-called charities administered by the Laskhar-e-Taiba militant network will be taken over by the state. Mr Abbasi offered no details other than a firm commitment that groups affiliated with banned militant networks will not be allowed to continue operations under their current management. The obstacle here is that while the LeT, its avatar the Jamaatud Dawa and its charity wing the Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation are on the UNSC sanctions list, Pakistan has banned only the LeT. This action must also be applied to the other two entities, currently under watch, in order to comply with UN stipulations. Despite attempts to create legally tenuous separations between banned militant networks and their various wings, there is little doubt that the FIF, JuD and LeT are closely connected. Additionally, the attempts — thus far being resisted by the centre — to register the Milli Muslim League as a bona fide political party appear to be a tactic to find new legal avenues for the overall LeT network to continue to have a public face. This should be resisted.

The fight against extremism cannot begin to be fought if militant networks are allowed to operate under the guise of social work or legitimate political activity. But the fight against extremism is fundamental to the security of Pakistan and its people. Extremism helps sustain an environment in which militant groups can recruit impressionable young men and women, and also helps normalise the role of non-state actors in society. It is absurd to suggest that groups that are ideologically opposed to the existence and constitutional foundations of the state and that endorse violence in circumstances of their own choosing should have a place in a modern Pakistan. To be sure, the many failures of the state have made it necessary for robust private social welfare groups to exist, and Pakistani society must be opened to greater and more diverse schools of political thought. But that must not come at the expense of stability and progress. The state appears to have little trouble drawing up and enforcing draconian new terms of operation for the many legitimate international aid organisations and NGOs that operate in the country; why should local groups with known and easily verified militant connections be allowed to operate under much laxer standards?

There is also a problem of Pakistan’s global credibility, including in organisations that Pakistan has legally binding obligations to. A monitoring team of the UNSC 1267 sanctions committee is to visit Pakistan and is likely to take a hard look at how globally sanctioned terrorists continue to operate in the country. That is not a question of a narrative war but of hard, legal facts. Further delay could create significant problems for Pakistan internationally.

Published in Dawn, January 24th, 2018