#Pakistan - Time to put the house in order

A list of blacklisted outfits recently released by the federal interior ministry includes Hafiz Saeed’s Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) and its subsidary Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF). Like several previously issued statements, the latest press release also held that aiding and abetting any of the mentioned organisations would be considered a crime. But how far the government will be able to implement its own order is yet to be seen. Going by the track record, such orders do little to bring a halt to extremist groups’ activities because they are not followed by action.

The activities of banned outfits continue despite inclusion of their names in such lists because they start operating under different names. It is unfortunate that the government has still been unable to devise a mechanism to stop this trend.

Hafiz Saeed formed a political party named Milli Muslim League (MML) last year which participated in NA 120 by-elections in Lahore. That the administration remains unwilling to act against the newly-formed group means the government does not have a plan to deal with banned radical groups which have continued their political activities after changing names. This was one of the core points of the National Action Plan (NAP), a document which is quite literally dead now.

The state’s inaction is hardly surprising, because the DG ISPR had admitted last year that a plan to bring extremists into the mainstream was underway. Therefore, the new list may have something to do with the US decision to cut aid to Pakistan on grounds that the country is not doing enough against terror. If the interior ministry’s new list is indeed linked only to the US’s tough talk, we hope that the list will serve its purpose rather than merely satisfying the authorities in the US.

It is about time Pakistani leadership accepted that the country needs to act against extremism not because the US demands it but because it is in our own interest. The achievements made in ongoing military operations will be affected if the extremists continue to gain ground. Therefore, the attitude of tolerance towards religious extremists needs to end now. Political activities of all religious extremist groups including Milli Muslim League and Tehreek-e-Labbaik should be stopped.