ISLAMABAD: Although the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) continues to be a designated terrorist outfit, the way has been cleared for its chief Maulana Ahmad Ludhianvi to contest the July 25 general elections.

The relevant authorities, however, have contradictory versions about the removal of his name from the Fourth Schedule. Relevant stakeholders remained unclear about the ground reality and each has a different version to present as the information regarding delisting of Maulana Ludhianvi from the Fourth Schedule of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, has been obtained by the media from the National Counter terrorism Authority (Nacta).

Nacta maintains that it is only a coordinating agency among federal and provincial government departments related to counterterrorism activities and the decision to delist Maulana Ludhianvi was taken by the Punjab home department on June 13. Nacta received a letter the next day and forwarded it to the State Bank of Pakistan the same day to de-freeze Maulana Ludhianvi’s bank account.

Under the ATA, any individual listed in the Fourth Schedule under Section 11EE is a proscribed person.

Sub-section 2(C) of Section 11EE requires that his (person in the 4th Schedule) movements be restricted to any place or area specified in the order and police be informed about his movement plan.

An official of the home department told Dawn that Maulana Ludhianvi was not on the list of proscribed persons under the 4th Schedule of ATA and his name had already been removed about three years ago.

He said that neither the Counter-Terrorism Depart­ment, Punjab, nor any of the reporting agencies, including the Special Branch, IB and ISI, had filed any complaint against Maulana Ludhianvi.

“Only that a letter has been issued on June 13 to ward off the confusion about his name on the list of 4th Schedule,” the official added. As stated by the official that Maulana Ludhianvi’s name was not on the list of persons in the 4th Schedule, he had been travelling abroad during the past three years too.

In his nomination papers submitted on June 19 to the returning officer for NA-115, Jhang, Maulana Ludhianvi has written that during the past three years he made six foreign visits all to Saudi Arabia, including three for performing Haj and three for Umra.

Meanwhile, ASWJ spokesman Hafiz Oneeb Farooqui said that Maulana Ludhianvi had suffered in the past as his name was in the 4th Schedule and even his ID card was blocked and bank account frozen.

“This was the main point of discussion in the meeting between leaders of the Defence of Pakistan Council (DPC) and then interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan,” Mr Farooqui said.

Chaudhry Nisar had met the DPC leaders, including Maulana Ludhianvi, in October 2016 and the former had said in a statement that ‘fourth schedulers cannot be denied nationality’ as their ID cards were blocked.

Talking to Dawn earlier, Maulana Ludhianvi had stated that despite efforts he had not been able to know if his name was on the list of proscribed persons or not ‘since 2015’. He said that the whole system was flawed.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2018