The News Minute | January 27, 2015 | 12:00 pm IST
The charity wing of the Jamaatud Dawa (JuD), Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation, on Monday launched a free ambulance service in Karachi.
“This [welfare work] is our key area for which we are known across Pakistan,” JuD chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed was quoted by Dawn as saying. “After launching several such projects in rural and disaster-hit areas of the country, we now plan to expand to facilitate the maximum number of people.”
In the first phase, the foundation would operate a fleet of 15 ambulances in all city districts and the number of vehicles would be increased gradually.
He also said that his organisation did not face resistance in any welfare project from the administration, dispelling rumours that the organization had a tussle with the government.
Pakistan had banned the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and the Haqqani network in the aftermath of the Peshwar massacre.
"We are not a political party so any propaganda to malign us would not prevent us from our actual job, which is not to win votes but to win the hearts of people through social services,” the JuD chief told a gathering of reporters.
Apart from Haqqani network and JuD, the ministry has also banned Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami, Harkat-ul-Mujahidin, Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation, Ummah Tameer-i-Nau, Haji Khairullah Hajji Sattar Money Exchange, Rahat Limited, Roshan Money Exchange, Al Akhtar Trust, Al Rashid Trust.
This report comes just ahead of a visit by a U.N. monitoring committee that will be looking closely at the “freeze on assets” of JuD and other terrorist groups that are on the “Al Qaeda Sanctions list.”