Daily Times

LAHORE: A division bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) would announce on July 3 its verdict on a petition challenging the detention of Jamaat-ud-Dawa’s (JuD’s) chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, his aides, including Prof Malik Zafar Iqbal, Abdur Rehman Abid, Qazi Kashif Hussain, Abdullah Ubaid and others.

The Punjab government on January 31 placed Hafiz Saeed and four other party leaders under house arrest after the Interior Ministry issued a letter. This letter issued to the provincial government on January 29 said that as per the UN Security Council sanctions, two organisations namely JuD and Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF), a public welfare arm of JuD, have been put on the watch list, and listed in the second schedule of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

On January 27, the Interior Ministry intimated that JuD and FIF were allegedly engaged in activities that could be prejudicial to peace and security, and were in violation of Pakistan’s obligations to the UN Security Council Resolution 1267.

Hafiz Saeed and others had challenged their detention and subsequent extension for another 90 days detention on April 30 before the LHC.

The Punjab Home Ministry in reply had submitted that the impugned detention orders were issued on federal government directives. It said that a report of the federal review board on extension in detention had already been submitted before the court.

Counsel for petitioners AK Dogar had said that the review board had declined the government request to give extension. He had requested the court to order the release of the petitioners. However, the bench reserved the decision after hearing arguments from both sides.