Is Financing Jihad Against America & India Allowed In Pakistan?

Just like the last year, once again Karachi-ites are witnessing the members of banned groups freely collecting donations outside mosques in the name of Jihad against America and India. The video clips going viral on the social media also prove the same. Importantly, in one video, Rangers personnel and their vehicle can easily be seen standing close to the Jihadis who were collecting donations from outside a mosque in Karachi. (http://www.mqm.org/urdunews/38117)

We know that a targeted operation has already been going on in Karachi since 2013 apparently against criminals and their facilitators. Furthermore, Rangers, the sub force of Pakistan army, this time too have put so many restrictions regarding approaching people and collecting Zakat & Fitras that even the legally registered charitable organizations are facing problems in following them. In such a situation, how the hell are the banned outfits so easily collecting donations??

Needless to mention that these were the Sindh Rangers themselves who had issued a warning to the Karachi-ites regarding giving their religious donations (Zakat & Fitra) to any individuals or organizations. According to the DG Rangers, through such warnings, he wanted to ensure that there could take place no incident of forced collection of donations and also the amounts voluntarily donated could not go to the hands of organizations involved in criminal and terrorist activities.

Consequently, the question is, had the extremist groups (collecting donations for Jihad as seen in the video clips), not been banned for having been involved in criminal/terrorist activities? Moreover, while raising funds, were the Jihadis themselves not openly revealing the purpose for which they were collecting Zakat & Fitra from people (i.e., Jihad)? When yes, why did they Rangers allow them to raise funds? Was that not an obvious contradiction of the warning issued by the Rangers themselves?

As per the prevailing Pakistani laws, no group or organization, other than the armed forces of Pakistan, has the authority/license to declare and fight a war against any other country of the world. However, some extremist groups (like Jaish-e-Mohammed, Jama'at-ud-Da'wah and Thereek-e-Taliban Pakistan) have declared Jihad (war) especially against America and India. They committed several terrorist attacks due to which they have been declared as terrorist organizations. Despite this, these groups were allowed to raise funds for their ill-deeds? Is collecting donations for Jihad to fight America and India permitted in Pakistan?

After the deadly attack at Army Public School, Peshawar (in which religious extremists brutally killed 150 people mainly including students), an action plan (named as National Action Plan or NAP) was established by the Government of Pakistan in 2015 with the aim of curbing terrorism and extremism in the country. Some of the important points of NAP for dealing with banned outfits were:

·      Formation of armed militia will not be allowed in the country.

·     There will be a crackdown on hate-speech, and action will be taken against newspapers, magazines contributing to the spread of such speech.

·      Financial sources of terrorists and terror organizations will be cut.

·      Banned outfits will not be allowed to operate under different names.

Keeping in view the above, is allowing the radical groups to operate freely and also to raise funds not sheer violation of the National Action Plan? Instead of cutting the financial resources of terrorist organizations, the Sindh Rangers are being seen facilitating them? What else should it be termed as if not deliberate assistance in terror financing? Considering all this, will the world ever believe that Pakistan is really serious in rooting out radicalization from within? At least, I do not think so!