Case adjourned: No hearing on JuD leaders’ detention plea

One of the judges on the newly formed bench was on leave

LAHORE: The new Lahore High Court bench formed by the chief justice to hear the plea of Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed and his aides against their detention could not hold proceedings on Tuesday as one of the judges was on leave.

While Justice Kazim Raza Shamsi and Justice Chaudhry Mushtaq Ahmed were ready to hear the case, Justice Chaudhry Mushtaq could not turn up for the day. The petition was adjourned for a date to be fixed later.

On February 22, a division bench headed by Justice Sardar Muhammad Shamim Khan sought the Punjab Home Department comments for March 7, seeking any material for justifying the petitioners’ detention.

Saeed and other JuD leaders had filed the plea through Advocate AK Dogar, attaching the organisation’s pamphlets about volunteer work in different areas of the country.

On January 28, the Punjab government had placed the names of Saeed, Abdullah Ubaid from Faisalabad, Malik Zafar Iqbal Shahbaz and Abdul Rehman Abid from Muridke and Qazi Kashif Hussain of Multan on the fourth schedule list. On January 30, the men were put under house detention for 90 days.

All this was done on the interior ministry’s recommendations on allegations of the JuD being involved in activities ‘hurting peace and security’.

On January 30, the interior ministry also put the names of Saeed and 37 other members of JuD and its charitable wing, the Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation, on the no-fly list, barring them from travelling abroad.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 8^th, 2017.