Pak yet to finalise appeal to challenge HC order freeing Saeed

M Zulqernain

Lahore, Jun 20 (PTI) Inspite of repeated announcements
that they intend to challenge the setting free of
Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, linked to
the India's Mumbai terror attack, the Pakistani authorities
are yet to finalise a proposed appeal against the High Court
order.

The delay in approaching the Supreme Court appears to be
due to differences on the issue between the federal and
provincial governments, sources said.

Shortly after Lahore High Court freed Jamaat-ud-Dawah
chief Saeed and a close aide on June 2, Punjab Law Minister
Rana Sanaullah and Pakistan's Attorney General Latif Khosa had
said an appeal would be filed within "a matter of days".

Though the Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit had said
an appeal would be filed by the government of Punjab province,
the federal government and the provincial government appear to
be waiting on who would take the initiative.

The federal government is distancing itself from an
earlier plan to file a joint appeal with the provincial
government, sources said.

"The federal government has asked Punjab to file an
appeal on its own without involving it. The federal government
wants its role to be confined to the appearance of the
Attorney General during the hearing of the case," an officer
of the Punjab government said.

Punjab's Advocate General Raza Farooq said he could file
an appeal in the Supreme Court to challenge the High Court's
order only if he was instructed to do so by the government. "I
can't do it on my own," he said.

He said the time to file an appeal had not ended as the
government had 60 days to do so from the day the High Court
issued its verdict.

"We have ample time and will file the appeal after doing
our homework," Farooq said.

Other officials said the restrictions imposed on JuD by
UN Security Council – including a ban on travel and freezing
the organisation's bank accounts – are being implemented.

Saeed and several of his aides were placed under house
arrest in December last year in the wake of the Mumbai terror
attacks. He was freed after he filed a petition challenging
his detention in the High Court.

Meanwhile, United Jehad Council chairman Syed Salahuddin
recently met Saeed at his office here. Salahuddin, who also
heads the Hizbul Mujahideen, congratulated Saeed on his
release and criticised Pakistan's rulers for their "weak
stance" on the Kashmir issue. PTI MZ
SKT
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