LAHORE: A division bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday, after receiving a reply from the Interior Ministry, deferred for April 27 the hearing of a petition challenging the detention of Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, his aides Prof Malik Zafar Iqbal, Abdur Rehman Abid, Qazi Kashif Hussain and Abdullah Ubaid and others.
On behalf of the ministry a written reply was submitted that no violation of law had taken place while issuing the detention orders of Hafiz Saeed and his aides, as the same were issued under Section 11EE of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, which deals with the proscription of a person. The ministry issued the detention notification in exercise of the powers conferred by Sub-section (1) of Section 11-D of the ATA, 1997, and placed JuD and Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF) in second schedule of the act.
The reply stated that the JuD and FIF had been kept under observation on the basis of a report sent by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and in light of that report the federal government had reasons to believe that the JuD and FIF were engaged in certain activities that could be prejudicial to peace and security and in violation of Pakistan’s obligation to the United Nations Security Council resolution.
The counsel for the ministry requested the court to dismiss the petition of JuD chief Hafiz Saeed and his aides challenging their detention.
On January 31, the Punjab government had placed Hafiz Saeed and four other party leaders under house arrest after the Interior Ministry issued a letter. This letter, issued to the provincial government on January 29, said that as per the UN Security Council sanctions, the two organisations namely JuD and FIF – a public welfare arm of the JuD – had been put on the watch list and listed in the second schedule of the Anti-Terrorism Act.
The Interior Ministry, on January 27, intimated that the JuD and FIF were engaged in activities that could be prejudicial to peace and security, and are in violation of Pakistan’s obligations to the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1267. A number of JuD and FIF pamphlets had also been made part of the petition, which highlighted the organisations and volunteer work in different parts of the country. It had also stated its other philanthropic works, including rescue work on The Mall suicide blast.
