Pak court adjourns hearing of JuD chief Saeed's petition

M Zulqernain

Lahore, May 6 (PTI) A Pakistani court Wednesday
adjourned till Thursday the hearing of a petition filed by
Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and one of his
aides challenging their detention in the wake of the Mumbai
terror attacks, which their counsel claimed was "unjustified".

The court adjournment came a day after their house
arrest was extended by two months.

A three-member bench of the Lahore High Court
adjourned the case after hearing A K Dogar, counsel for Saeed
and his aide Col (retired) Nazir Ahmed. This was the first
hearing of the case by the bench, which was set up Tuesday
by the Chief Justice of the High Court.

Dogar told the bench comprising Justices Ijaz Ahmed
Chaudhry, Hasnat Ahmed and Zitatul Hasan that the government
had "no legal ground" to detain his clients. Dogar also
claimed their detention was unjustified.

"As a matter of fact, the government, on the pretext
of the UN Security Council's ban on the JuD, has detained its
leaders," he claimed.

The government "could not bear pressure" from India
and the US in the wake of Mumbai terror attacks and took the
JuD leaders into custody to appease these countries, he
alleged. PTI