LAHORE:
The Lahore High Court on Thursday sought a reply from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on a point of law raised by the counsel for Jamaatud Dawa chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed: if the government can defend a retired military officer before a US court, then why can’t it do the same for another Pakistani citizen?
Saeed and several other JD members and Inter Services Intelligence officers including the current and previous director general have been accused in an American court of providing material support to the perpetrators of the November 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai.
Advocate AK Dogar argued on Thursday that the government was paying to defend former ISI chief Nadeem Taj even though he was now a private individual post retirement. He said that his client Saeed, as an ordinary citizen, should be treated the same as a retired government officer and be defended in the petition in the US court.
Justice Umar Ata Bandial then directed Deputy Attorney General Naseem Kashmiri, who was present in the court, to file a reply on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in this regard by September 20.
At the last hearing, the ministry had told the court that it was defending current ISI chief LT Gen Shuja Pasha before the US court because he was the head of a government institution, while the JD and its chief were not a part of the government. Therefore the government could not provide legal assistance to him or his organisation.
Background
The petition against Saeed, in which he is described as the head of the Lashkar-i-Taiba, and the ISI was filed by the son of two Jewish Americans killed in the Mumbai attack and others. The plaintiffs have filed nine claims against the accused and sought $75,000 in damages on each claim.
Saeed later moved a petition in the Lahore High Court seeking official help to defend himself in the case. He submitted that he had no ties to Lashkar-i-Taiba, which is believed to have organised the Mumbai attack, and was head of a charity, Jamatud Dawa.
He said the government had detained him in 2009 and a full bench of LHC had ordered his release, noting that there was no evidence that he had links with Al Qaeda or any terrorist organisation.
The petitioner said that the government should defend him in the same manner as it was protecting the ISI chief and other officials. Saeed said that as a Pakistani citizen, he enjoyed same rights as any other Pakistani.
He said that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani had said in the National Assembly that ISI officials could not be subjected to a trial in an American court and the government would try to get the case dismissed. The petitioner said that under Article 25 of the Constitution, all citizens were equal before the law and entitled to equal protection of the law.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 1st, 2011.
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