Pakistan says ban remains on terrorist-linked charity

ISLAMABAD, Apr 28 (Reuters) The Pakistan government said a ban on a Islamic 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 today.

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.

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

Al-Rasheed was placed on a 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.

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.

He also said the court instructed the government that it would need to frame its own rules and regulations, as a ban could not be enforced on the basis of UN rules alone.

Contacted today, Rajput said there was some confusion.

''Our main plea is that the government has closed our offices without any written notification or letter, and hence officially in government records our offices are not closed.

''They have been forcibly closed by the area police officials, and we don't have any notification in this regard.

That is why there is a confusion.'' REUTERS SM RK1448