Pak court asks authorities to reply before May 21 on Saeed

Pak court asks authorities to reply before May 21 on Saeed

M Zulqernain

Lahore, May 15 (PTI) A Pakistani court Friday asked
authorities to inform it by May 21 as to whether they had
provided Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed and one of
his aides the reasons for their detention in the wake of the
Mumbai terror attacks.

A three-member bench of the Lahore High Court, which
is hearing a petition filed by Saeed and his aide Col
(retired) Nazir Ahmed challenging their detention, asked the
government of Punjab province to provide a response in this
regard.

The court directed the advocate general of the
province to submit a reply at the next hearing on May 21.

A K Dogar, counsel for Saeed and Ahmed, completed his
arguments Friday. He reiterated that the government had no
legal grounds to detain his clients.

He said a judicial review board of the Lahore High
Court had freed two JuD leaders – Amir Hamza and Mufti Abdur
Rehman – but extended the detention of Saeed and Ahmed by two
months though they were all put under house arrest on the same
grounds.

Dogar said the JuD is an independent organization that
had no connection with the Lashker-e-Taiba, blamed for the
Mumbai terror strikes.

He also noted that the United Nations Security Council
had only banned the JuD but had not asked for the detention of
its leaders.

Saeed and Ahmed were placed under house arrest on
December 12 last year under the Maintenance of Public Order
ordinance, which allows a person to be held for up to 90 days.
Their detention was subsequently extended twice. PTI MZ
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