Tuesday 14th Jan, 2025
Lahore: The Lahore high court on Thursday directed the government of Pakistan’s Punjab province to take a decision by September 11 on a plea by Jamaat-ud Dawah chief Hafiz Saeed challenging an order to extend his detention for 60 more days.
The Punjab home department issued an order on July 28 under which the house arrest of the alleged mastermind of the Mumbai terror attacks and his four aides – Abdullah Ubaid, Malik Zafar Iqbal, Abdul Rehman Abid and Qazi Kashif Hussain – was extended for two months.
Apparently frustrated with not getting a decision from the Lahore High Court, which had on June 7 reserved his petition against his first detention order on January 30, Saeed last week filed a fresh petition challenging the detention.
Lahore high court Justice Mazahir Ali Naqvi issued an order to the Punjab home department in response to Saeed’s petition to decide the matter by September 11, after which the court will conduct a hearing on September 12.
A law officer told the court that the home secretary would hear the petitioners regarding their house arrest on September 11 and decide the matter.
“Imprisonment without trial and conviction is prima facie unlawful and unconstitutional. The government detained the petitioners to please India and America. Courts in the past declared the detention of JuD leaders illegal as the government failed to prove its charges,” the petition said.
On April 30, the detention of Saeed and his four aides had been extended by the Punjab government for 90 days under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997.
The Punjab government had on January 30 placed them under house arrest in Lahore under the Second Schedule of the Anti-Terrorism Act.
The JuD is a front for the banned Lashkar- e-Taiba (LeT). It was declared a foreign terrorist organisation by the US in 2014.