The government said a ban on a charity named on a UN terrorist list remains in place, following remarks by the charity's lawyer earlier this week suggesting that a court in Karachi had lifted the ban.
"The Sindh High Court has not suspended the ban on Al-Rasheed Trust imposed by the government of Pakistan," the Interior Ministry said in a statement received by Reuters on Saturday. The statement said that court had ordered that perishable foods and medicines could be released from Al-Rasheed Trust's storage and distributed to people in need.
The main petition by the trust, challenging the government's ban will be heard on May 15. The government in February shut down offices of Al-Rasheed Trust in several cities, including over a dozen in the southern province of Sindh. Security agencies say the trust, run by clerics, has been associated with the Afghan Taliban and militant groups. Al-Rasheed was placed on a UN list in 2001, which requires member states to freeze assets of organisations linked to terrorism.
The government froze Al-Rasheed's accounts after the September 11 attacks on the United States. A court in 2003 declared the ban illegal, but trust is still engaged in legal battles to be allowed to operate freely. After Thursday's hearing by a two-member bench, the trust's lawyer Manzoor Ahmed Rajput said the court had ordered an immediate opening of the trust's offices and relief centres.
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