The document, which the BBC describes as a notification issued by the Interior Ministry that was not publicly announced, claims that the ASWJ was suspected to be involved in acts of terrorism in the country, therefore it was being added to the first schedule of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.
The notification by the federal ministry was sent to all provincial governments and concerned departments, claims the report.
The report further claims that Interior Minister Rehman Malik's
Pak politician, current Interior Minister under the Gilani administration. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. He later joined the Pak Peoples Party and was chief security officer to Bhutto. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men.
office had been contacted for a comment on the ban, but to no avail.
The ASWJ is led by its president Maulana Mohammad Ahmed Ludhianvi, and is a key part of the Difa-e-Pakistain, or Defence of Pakistain, Council (DPC), a coalition of around 40 religious and ultra-nationalist parties.
Shouting "death to America" at a rally in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
last month, members of the DPC condemned US drone attacks and military operations in tribal areas, and warned the government against restoring NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions...
supply routes and granting MFN (most favoured nation) status to India.
Ludhianvi, when contacted, said that he was unaware of any such ban, adds the report.
"We are a peaceful organization," Ludhianvi was quoted as saying. "If anyone places a ban on us...they are trying to place a ban on Pakistain."
The ASWJ was formed after the government of former president General (retd)
Pervez PervMusharraf
... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ...
banned a handful of religious parties, including the Sipah-e-Sahaba in 2002.
The Lashkar-e-Jhangwi (LeJ), another splinter group of the Sipah-e-Sahaba led by Hafiz Saeed
...founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba and its false-mustache offshoot Jamaat-ud-Dawa. The United Nations declared the JuD a terrorist organization in 2008 and Hafiz Saeed a terrorist as its leader. Hafiz, JuD and LeT are wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Pak intel apparatus, so that amounted to squat...
, has also allegedly been involved in terrorist acts, and is reported to have links with the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) as well.