Islamabad has refused to impose a ‘total ban’ on Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), front for the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), thus raising questions about Pakistan’s commitment to co-operate with international community in eradicating terrorism inside its territory.

On December 10 the UN Security Council (UNSC) imposed sanctions on the JuD and identified four of its top commanders as terrorists, including JuD chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed and LeT operations commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, alleged mastermind of the Mumbai attacks.

In the wake of this event Pakistan cracked down on the Jamaat and placed Saeed under house arrest. But behind the facade of these measures interior ministry asked all four provincial governments not to take any action against any of the Jamaat’s 500 seminaries and Dawa model schools — often described by the Western media as training camps and indoctrination centres.

Pakistan's Foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi claimed that there was no solid evidence suggesting that the outfit was promoting extremism or violence at Jamaat-run seminaries and schools and thus they would be allowed to continue to function as usual.