Former national security adviser Mahmud Ali Durrani speaking to journalists in India on Monday said the Pakistani government should take action against Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, India media reported.
Durrani, who was a speaker at the 19th Asian Security Conference in Delhi, responding to a journalist's question said that Hafiz Saeed "has no utility" for Pakistan. "We should act against him," he asserted, according to NDTV.
The Interior Ministry announced in January this year that Saeed had been placed under house arrest for three months.
The JuD and Falah-i-Insaaniat Foundation (FIF), a charity organisation affiliated with the JuD, were both included in the second schedule and were to be placed on the government’s watch list for six months under Section (1) 11EEE of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997.
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar earlier confirmed that the JuD had been on the government's watchlist for several years.
The organisation was also listed under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1267, which is known as the Al Qaeda and Taliban sanctions committee.
Nisar had said certain actions were to be taken by the state after its enlistment, which had not been taken, adding that the government was now moving to meet those obligations.
The United Nations Security Council had placed sanctions against the JuD, declaring it a terrorist organisation in December 2008.
The US State Department in June 2014 had termed the JuD a "foreign terrorist organisation", a status that freezes any assets it has under the US jurisdiction.
New Delhi blames Saeed for the Mumbai attacks, but Pakistan argues that India has failed to provide incriminating evidence against him.
The JuD chief remained under house arrest for months during the Musharraf regime in 2002 after an attack on the Indian parliament and once again after the Mumbai attacks in 2008.
The Lahore High Court had ordered his release in June 2009 after the government had failed to establish a case against him.
