JuD chief challenges house arrest in LHC

Hafiz Saeed has moved the court to remove his name from ECL, fourth schedule

LAHORE: Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and his four aides moved the Lahore High Court challenging their house arrests and being added to the fourth schedule.

The JuD chief on Tuesday also challenged the interior ministry’s decision of putting his name on the Exit Control List with 37 of his other aides.

The petition will be taken up by a division bench of the LHC headed by Justice Sardar Muhammad Shamim.

Hafiz Saeed and other JuD leaders have filed this petition through Advocate AK Dogar.



On January 31st this year the provincial government of Punjab had placed JuD’s chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and four other party leaders under house arrest

A letter issued by the ministry to the provincial government on January 29 said that JuD as well Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF), which is a public welfare arm of JuD, has been put on the watch list and listed in the second schedule of the Anti-Terrorism Act. It said the two organisations had been put under watch list as per the UN Security Council sanctions.

According to notification putting them under detention, the ministry of

interior on January 27 had intimated that JuD and FIF are engaged in certain activities which could be prejudicial to peace and security and are in violation of Pakistan’s obligations to the UN Security Council Resolution 1267.

A number of JuD and Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation pamphlets are also made part of the petition which highlighted the organisation’s volunteer work in different parts of the country.



It has also stated its other philanthropic works including rescue work in the Mall Road suicide blast.

Giving details, the petition said that 569 of the organisation’s volunteers and 54 ambulances participated in rescue work. It stated that it shifted 13 injured and six bodies.

It further said that they arranged 70 blood bags for the injured and provided food to 1,076 people for three days after the blast. They also distributed 755 water bottles and arranged funeral prayers for three deceased, the writ petition stated.

Five individuals under preventive detention including Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, Abdullah Ubaid, Zafar Iqbal, Abdur Rehman Abid, and Kashif Niaz are the active members of the two organisations.

India claims that Hafiz Muhammad Saeed was the alleged mastermind of coordinated attacks on the Indian city of Mumbai in 2008 that killed more than 160 people.



A JuD leader on condition of anonymity said that under the UNSC Resolution 1267, Hafiz Saeed could be barred from travelling abroad, acquiring weapon licenses and opening bank accounts but he cannot be detained or placed under house arrest under the resolution.

The leader further said that the JuD was likely to participate in elections but added that for now they wanted to concentrate on clearing JuD’s name before registering with ECP.

“Although JuD had never planned to participate in the elections but there was a lot of discussion on it following its relief works in the 2005 Azad Jammu and Kashmir earthquake,” he stated.

“The party leaders always had option to register JuD with the ECP and they still have this right which may be exercised only after being cleared from the charges,” he said.

(With additional reporting by Qadeer Tanoli in Islamabad)