JuD’s Hafiz Saeed a threat to peace in province, Punjab govt tells LHC

LAHORE: The Punjab government on Tuesday opposed the release of Jamaatud Dawa chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, informing the Lahore High Court (LHC) that freeing the fiery cleric from house arrest is likely to create unrest in the province.

The Punjab Home Department stated this in a written reply submitted before the court during the hearing of an appeal for the release of the JuD chief.

During the hearing, the counsel for Saeed argued that his client’s detention was illegal and baseless, thus the LHC should annul the order of keeping the JuD leader under house arrest.

“The defendant was put under house arrest after the US threatened to cut Pakistan’s aid, it was done without any cases being registered against him,” Khokhar said, to which the judges pointed out that the defendant’s lawyer had made no mention of the US’s alleged pressure in their case. They added that the defendant’s application is based on a news clipping.

The home department said that the JuD chief was put under house arrest under the anti-terrorism laws to keep him from collecting funds — which is a violation of various resolutions of the United Nations. It said that the police and counter-terrorism department’s reports on the matter have also been submitted before the court.

It also pointed out that various cases were registered against members of JuD for collecting hides during the three days of Eidul Azha in contempt of the ministry’s orders. Cases were also registered against the party for collecting funds in contempt of the provincial ministry’s orders, the reply said.

It was also mentioned in the provincial ministry’s reply that the Election Commission of Pakistan has asked the JuD’s political wing, Milli Muslim League’s (MML) candidate for NA-120 by-polls to remove Saeed’s pictures from his promotional posters. In the light of these facts, releasing Saeed from house arrest will lead to unrest in the province, the provincial ministry concluded in their reply.

The court asked Khokhar to present more arguments in the next hearing and adjourned the case until Sept 15.

On January 1, the provincial authorities had issued orders to place Saeed under house arrest, the JuD chief had been detained under Section 11-EEE(1) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1977. Saeed had been accused by the United States and India of masterminding the 2008 attacks on the Indian financial capital Mumbai that killed 166 people.

He, however, has repeatedly denied involvement in the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

In 2012, the United States announced a bounty of $10 million on Hafiz Saeed for his alleged role in the attack in which six American citizens were also killed.