ISLAMABAD: The bank accounts of all Afghan nationals living in Pakistan will undergo scrutiny as the government mulls over ways to block all sources of terrorist funding.

A high-level meeting, held at the Prime Minister’s Secretariat on Friday to review progress on the implementation of counter-terrorism National Action Plan, decided that bank accounts of all Afghan nationals would be monitored by financial monitoring unit of the Ministry of Finance, in coordination with the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and intelligence agencies.

The information will be shared with National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) for scanning all such accounts involved in suspected transactions. All such business activities and bank accounts operating without due legal requirements will be blocked.

The meeting, presided over by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, was attended by Minister of State for Information Technology Anushe Rehman, Special Assistants to Prime Minister Khawaja Zaheer and Barrister Zafar Ullah, federal secretaries of Interior, Finance, Law and Justice and Safron, Directors-General of Intelligence Bureau, FIA, Director General of (Counter Terrorism) Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), NACTA National Coordinator, Chairman of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) chairman, Capital Development Authority chief and Inspector General of Police, Islamabad.

Directives were given to all relevant departments to block bank accounts, financial transactions and all kinds of funding of proscribed organisations, NGOs or other individuals or organisations having any connection with terrorists or terrorist activities.

The meeting decided that over 100 million unverified SIMs would be verified within the next 85 days after which the possessing or sale of any unregistered/unverified SIM would be made a cognizable offence.

The move will help not only in tracking down unverified SIMs connected with terrorism but also curb the massive grey traffic which is taking place in the communication sector.

It was further decided that registration of Afghan refugees, which has already been started, would move ahead on a fast-track basis and all refugees would be moved back to camps at the earliest.

The Ministry of Information Technology was asked to work in close collaboration with the PTA, intelligence agencies and international monitors to close down all terrorism-related websites/web-based messaging services and other terrorism-related material on the internet and social media.

A databank and monitoring network is being set up to stop all proscribed organisations from re-emerging secretly or under different names.

The CDA was directed to chalk out a detailed plan in consultations with Police and District Administration within a week to identify illegal/unregistered Afghan refugees in and around Islamabad to facilitate their movement to their camps.

It was further decided to demolish all illegally constructed high structures near sensitive installations in Islamabad.

The meeting discussed in detail the issue of madressahs having connections with terrorist organisations and terrorism and it was decided to take a final decision on the matter after a meeting with heads of all major madressah bodies.

The crucial meeting will take place on Saturday.

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play