LHC adjourns Hafiz Saeed’s detention hearing

He and four other party leaders were arrested on orders issued by the interior ministry

LAHORE: A division bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) adjourned, till June 19, the hearing of a petition challenging the detention of Jamatud Dawa chief Hafiz  Saeed and his aides Professor Malik Zafar Iqbal, Abdur Rehman Abid, Qazi Kashif Hussain and Abdullah Ubaid.

During the hearing of petition, the Punjab home ministry submitted a reply, stating that detention orders were issued on the instructions of the federal government. He said that a federal review board report on the extension of the detention was submitted before the court.



The petitioner’s counsel AK Dogar said that the review board declined the government’s request for an extension. He requested that the petitioners be released and after hearing both sides, the bench adjourned the hearing.

On January 31st, the Punjab government placed Hafiz Saeed and four other JuD party leaders under house arrest. The Ministry for Interior’s letter stated that “as per UN Security Council sanctions, two organisations, JuD and Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF), had been put on a watch list and were placed under the Second Schedule of the Anti-Terrorism Act.”



The ministry, on January 27, told the Punjab government that JuD and FIF were engaged in activities which could be detrimental to peace and security. It added they were in violation of Pakistan’s obligations to the UN Security Council Resolution 1267.

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