ISLAMABAD: Rules on freezing and seizure of the assets of banned organisations and persons on Schedule-IV of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) 1997 have been finalised by the authorities concerned and submitted to the Law and Justice Division for vetting.

The government constituted the prime minister’s subcommittee on choking financing for terrorists and terrorist organisations under the National Action Plan (NAP). Actions have been taken by the federal and the provincial governments and the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on the recommendations of the committee.

Highlighting the steps taken by the government to obstruct terror financing, sources in the interior ministry said that under the ATA, designated/proscribed entities and individuals were prohibited from opening bank accounts and availing of any facility from financial institutions.

Accordingly, they said, banks had reported freezing 4,461 accounts of persons on 4th Schedule, which had deposits amounting to around Rs400 million.

Implementation of the ATA provisions related to terror financing has also been strengthened through capacity building, enforcement actions and frequent practice of proscription of terrorist organisations.

The Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU) of the State Bank is organising capacity building programmes in coordination with national and international stakeholders. The programmes are meant to train law enforcement agencies (LEAs) and regulators in investigating cases of terror financing.

Published in Dawn, March 20th, 2017