LAHORE: A division bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) postponed for April 12 the hearing of a petition challenging detention of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, his aides Prof Malik Zafar Iqbal, Abdur Rehman Abid, Qazi Kashif Hussain and Abdullah Ubaid and others.
The bench, comprising Justice Kazim Raza Shamsi and Justice Ch Mushtaq Ahmad, was hearing the petition. During the hearing on Tuesday, the bench observed that it would not be able to further hear the matter since the new roster of judges had been issued for next week.
The bench remarked that the petition would be duly fixed before a new bench designated for ATA related matters.
On January 31st, the Punjab government placed Hafiz Saeed and four other party leaders under house arrest after the Interior Ministry issued a letter. This letter was issued to the provincial government on January 29, saying that as per the UN Security Council sanctions, two organisations namely JuD and Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF), a public welfare arm of the JuD, have been put on the watch list and listed in the second schedule of the Anti-Terrorism Act.
The ministry of interior, on January 27, intimated that JuD and FIF were allegedly engaged in activities that could be prejudicial to peace and security, and were in violation of Pakistan’s obligations to the UN Security Council Resolution 1267.
A number of JuD and FIF pamphlets have also been made part of the petition, which highlighted the organisations’ volunteer work in different parts of the country, according to the notification putting them under detention.
Hafiz Saeed and others had challenged their detention ordered by the provincial government. Counsel for petitioners A K Dogar had submitted that the Punjab government in light of the Interior Ministry’s order had detained the petitioners for a period of 90 days in exercise of powers under section 11-EEE (1) of Anti Terrorism Act 1997.
He had said that Hafiz Saeed was detained in his house in Johar Town by declaring his residence a sub-jail, while four of his aides had been detained in Masjid Al-Qadsia. He had said that the impugned order was based on “mala fide intentions of the government. He said that only the federal government had the authority to include anyone in 4th schedule.
He said that the provincial government did not have any evidence to detain the petitioners. He had mentioned that Interior Minister Ch Nisar Ali Khan in a statement said the government was fulfilling its obligations under UN resolutions.
He asserted that the government had no evidence that the petitioners were risk to security of Pakistan, and that merely on the basis of the UN resolutions their liberty could not be curtailed.
He had requested the court to set aside the notifications for being “illegal”, and order the government to set them at liberty.
