A provincial review board comprising three judges of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on November 22 rejected the Punjab government’s request for an extension of Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed’s detention and directed the government to release him once the 30 days of his house arrest ended.
The board, headed by Justice Abdul Sami Khan, directed the government to release Mr Saeed if he was not required in any other cases. His detention will end at midnight on November 23.
On November 22, the government sought a three-month extension of his detention and produced the JuD chief before the board amid strict security arrangements. A large number of JuD workers were present on the court’s premises to welcome their leader.
The provincial government of Punjab had first detained Hafiz Saeed in January this year for a period of 90 days in exercise of powers under Section 11-EEE(1) of the Anti Terrorism Act 1997. Later, the government extended his detention on its own under the Maintenance of Public Order ordinance till it was required to obtain approval from a review board last month. The board had extended Saeed’s detention for another 30 days, starting from Oct 25. Four other JuD leaders who had been under house arrest with him were released on directions of the review board.
Earlier in the morning of November 22, Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmad separately heard Mr Saeed’s writ petition challenging his detention. The judge had adjourned the hearing till Dec 6 to wait for the decision of the review board, which was announced late in the afternoon on Wednesday. Advocate A.K. Dogar had argued the government had no evidence to prove that Saeed was a risk to national security. He added that his freedoms could not be curtailed merely on the basis of UN resolutions.
Saeed heads the Jamat ud Dawa, or JuD, which poses as a charity but is a front for the terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
Saeed has always denied involvement in the Mumbai attacks of 2008 that left 166 people dead after landmarks in the financial capital were attacked by 10 terrorists who sailed into the city from Karachi.
US Move
In a significant development earlier this month, the US Congress changed a provision in a defence bill that would have required Islamabad to take steps to "significantly disrupt'' the activities of both LeT and the Haqqani network.
It restricted the requirement only to the Haqqani group. National Defence Authorisation Act 2018, which would have required the US Secretary of Defence to certify that Pakistan is acting against both Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and the Haqqani network, was changed at the conference to reconcile the House and Senate versions of the bill, and LeT was removed.
The United States has for years offered $10 million for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Saeed.