Court hearing: Hizbut Tahrir’s petition against ban to be heard

RAWALPINDI:

The Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi bench will take up a petition - pending for the last five years - against a 2003 ban imposed by the federal government on Hizbut Tahrir Pakistan (HuT), after Eid.

The petition was filed in early 2006 challenging a notification of the interior ministry issued on November 11, 2003. The notification said HuT was involved in sectarian, militant and terrorist activities in the country.

A division bench of the high court comprising Justice Manzoor Ahmed Malik and Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmed Khan has now put off the hearing of the petition filed by HuT spokesperson Naveed Butt till September 12 saying the matter needs “serious consideration” and would be dealt with after Ramazan.

HuT has maintained that the notification issued against it was illegal and should be set aside “as members of the political organisation and their families are being harassed, detained and framed in fake criminal cases”.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 4^th, 2011.