Pakistan Islamic charity wins case against closure

KARACHI, Apr 26 (Reuters) A Pakistani court today ordered authorities to re-open offices of an Islamic charity they had sealed after it appeared on a UN list of organisations linked to terrorism, a lawyer said.

The government shut down offices of Al-Rasheed Trust in several cities, including over a dozen in the southern province of Sindh, in February.

A two-member bench of the Sindh High Court ruled there was no justification for closing the offices of the trust which operated several relief centres in Afghanistan under the Taliban rule.

''The court has ordered an immediate opening of all the offices and relief centres of the trust throughout the country,'' said Manzoor Ahmed Rajput, a lawyer for the charity.

''The court has instructed the government that such action cannot be taken under the rules of the UN, and that the government needs to frame its own rules and regulations for such steps,'' he added.

Al-Rasheed was placed on the UN list in 2001, which requires member states to freeze assets of organisations linked to terrorism.

The Pakistani government froze Al-Rasheed's accounts after the September 11 attacks on the United States, but a court in 2003 declared the move illegal.

The group has not been banned in Pakistan.

Pakistani security agencies say the trust, run by hardline Islamic clerics, was associated with the Afghan Taliban and militant Islamic groups.

REUTERS JS RK1658