Daily Times

LAHORE: A division bench of the Lahore High Court Monday, while hearing a petition against alleged detention of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed, his aides Prof Malik Zafar Iqbal, Abdur Rehman Abid, Qazi Kashif Hussain, Abdullah Ubaid and others, directed a law officer of the Punjab government to come prepared on April 4.

The Punjab government on January 31st had put Hafiz Saeed and four other party leaders under house arrest after the Interior Ministry issued a letter.

Hafiz Saeed and others had challenged their detention ordered by the provincial government. Counsel for petitioners A K Dogar had submitted that the Punjab government in light of the Interior Ministry’s order had detained the petitioners for a period of 90 days in exercise of powers under section 11-EEE (1) of Anti Terrorism Act 1997.

He asserted that the government had no evidence that the petitioners were a security risk to Pakistan, and merely on the basis of the United Nations resolutions their liberty could not be curtailed. He had requested to set aside the alleged detention of his clients.

Separately, Justice Ayesha A Malik of Lahore High Court on Monday gave last opportunity to Punjab government forest wildlife department regarding conservation of endanger species blackbuck.

The court deferred for two weeks the hearing of a petition moved by a local resident, Ali Imran.

Counsel for petitioner Sheraz Zaka submitted that several incidents had been reported regarding theft of blackbucks in Bahawalpur district. He said that the Punjab environment secretary, Wildlife Department and Environmental Protection Agency should be asked as to what remedial measures had been taken for the protection of blackbucks.

He said that Pakistan was a member of International Union of Conservation for Nature, and had also ratified the convention for international trade of endangered species.

He requested the court to issue directives to protect the rare species.

In a separate case, Justice Atir Mahmood of the Lahore High Court (LHC) Monday sought replies from the Centre and the Finance Ministry on a petition challenging powers of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar to present the supplementary budget.

The court ordered the respondents to submit their replies until April 17.

Mahmood Akhtar Naqvi, a local resident, had filed the petition. He said that delegating powers to a minister by the federal cabinet was in violation of the Supreme Court’s verdict.

He submitted that the apex court had abrogated to direct a single person to forward the task of a federal cabinet. He requested the court to set aside the powers enjoyed by the finance minister.