Resolving dispute: Pleas involving JuD arbitration council likely to be decided today

Petitioner had sought action against JuD men for assaulting, blackmailing him

LAHORE: An additional district and sessions judge (ADSJ) will resume on Monday (today) hearings of petitions filed by a Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) member and a man who has accused him of assault and blackmail. ADSJ Hamid Hussain is likely to issue the verdict in both cases on Monday.

In his petition, Muhammad Idrees, a JuD member, rejected the charge that he was running an illegal court or that he had issued summons to anyone to appear before the court. He requested the court to direct the relevant police station to register an FIR against Khalid Saeed for raising a false accusation against him. He said that he was a teacher at a seminary at the JuD headquarters at Markazal Qadsia, Chauburji. He said he was also a member of an arbitration council associated with the seminary. The arbitration council dealt with family and other civil disputes with the consent of the disputants, he added.

He said the council had received an application from Muhammad Azam seeking an intervention to settle a financial dispute with Khalid Saeed. He said the council had then approached Saeed through telephone to seek his consent for dispute resolution. However, he said, the case had been abandoned when Saeed refused the offer. However, he said, Saeed later moved a petition in the Lahore High Court accusing Idrees of issuing summons to him to appear before the arbitration council. He said that to support his accusations Saeed had produced a bogus document in court bearing a counterfeit stamp of the ‘JuD sharia court’ and signatures of arbitration council members, claiming that it was sent to him by the JuD. He told the court that he had requested the Mozang police to take action against Saeed in the matter but his request had not been entertained.

At a previous hearing, the court had directed the Mozang SHO to look into the matter and submit a progress report. In his report, the SHO had said that he was investigating the case and had assured the court that he would proceed in the matter in accordance with the law.

In a petition submitted in the same court, Khalid Saeed had sought there gistration of an FIR against Muhammad Azam and four other people who, he said, had assaulted him on April 21 while he was on his way to the LHC to attend the hearing of his petition against Idrees and Azam. He said the attackers had threatened him with dire consequences if he did not withdraw the petition filed in the LHC. He said he had approached the court after his request for registration of an FIR in the matter was not entertained by the Old Anarkali police.

In the petition submitted in the LHC, Saeed had said that he had received a notice from the Darul Qaza Alsharia associated with JuD’s Masjid Al-Qadsia in January 2016. He said in the notice he had been asked to appear before the arbitration council on January 25 in an application filed against him by Muhammad Azam. He said a copy of the notice was referred to JuD chief Hafiz Saeedas well.

Saeed had said the ‘court’ established by Qazi Idrees was in violation of the Constitution. “The word court can be used only with reference to the Supreme Court, the Federal Shari at Court, High Courts and their subordinate courts,” he said. “The move was equivalent to setting up a parallel judicial system and appeared to be an attempt to subvert the Constitution of the country,” he added.

Justice Ali Akbar Qureshi of the LHC had disposed of the petition and directed Saeed to approach the home secretary for redress of his grievance.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 30^th, 2016.