The government of Pakistan will push ahead with plans to seize control of charities run by Hafiz Saeed, said Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Monday in an interview to Reuters.
The premier also warned the United States not to weaken Islamabad.
Chief of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant group, Saeed has been designated a terrorist by Washington. The US has labelled the charities Jamaatud Dawa and the Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation as "terrorist fronts" for LeT.
“Yes, the government will take over the charities, which are sanctioned and not allowed to operate,” said Abbasi.
“Everybody is on board, everybody is on the same page, everybody is committed to the implementation of UN sanctions,” he said in the interview.
Hafiz Saeed, however, denied his alleged involvement in any illegal activities and told reporters in Lahore on Tuesday that he is inviting the United Nations to visit the offices of his charity in the city.
Saeed said he had already submitted a petition before the Lahore High Court to prevent the government from seizing his charity. He added that the charity was not banned by the UN but placed under a watch list.
The United Nations Security Council’s sanctions monitoring team will visit Islamabad on January 25 and 26 for an assessment of Pakistan’s compliance with the world body’s sanctions regime.
The visit is taking place amid increasing pressure on Pakistan from US and India with respect to the alleged inadequate implementation of the sanctions on Saeed and entities linked to him.
Pakistani officials, however, insist that the trip is a routine visit.
Saeed, who was in November set free from a 300-day-long house arrest, has been repeatedly accused by the US and India of masterminding the 2008 attacks on the Indian financial capital that killed 166 people.
Last week, the US had again urged Pakistan to prosecute Saeed "to the fullest extent of the law", saying, "We regard him as a terrorist, a part of a foreign terrorist organisation".
The Indian Ministry of External Affairs had echoed the US sentiments: “If somebody is designated [a] global terrorist, it’s done based on [a] lot of evidence available in public domain."
Earlier this month, the Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan prohibited the collection of donations by JuD, as well as several other organisations.
