Defence in US: Saeed seeks hearing by CJ

LHC adjourns hearing of petition filed by Jamatud Dawa chief after he requests transfer of case.

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Monday adjourned the hearing of a petition filed by Jamatud Dawa chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed after his counsel requested Justice Nasir Saeed Sheikh to transfer the case to Chief Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry’s court.

Justice Sheikh asked AK Dogar, Saeed’s counsel, to move a transfer application. In his petition, Saeed had sought directives for the federal government to defend him in a suit filed against him, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, Azam Cheema and Sajid Majid as well as the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), its former directo general Nadeem Taj, current head Lt-Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha and two other army officials, Major Iqbal and Major Samir Ali, in  a United States court.

The federal government on December 31, 2010 had announced that it would defend the ISI head in the US court.

Saeed said that as a citizen he was entitled to equal treatment and requested the court to direct the federal government to defend him in the US court.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 18^th, 2011.