A Division Bench of the Lahore High Court on Monday accepted Hafiz Saeed’s petitions for quashing the cases registered against him and issued notices to the Punjab provincial government and police officials.
The two-judge bench issued notices to the Station House Officers of the two police stations in Faisalabad that registered the cases against the Jamat-ud-dawa chief under the Anti-Terrorism Act, asking them to respond at the next hearing on October 12.
A notice has also been issued to the Home Secretary of the Punjab provincial government.
Mr. Saeed’s lawyer, A.K. Dogar, presented to the judges that the case did not attract the anti-terrorism law as the Jamat-ud-dawa is not a proscribed organisation.
He also argued that professing and propagating one’s religion was a fundamental right of every Pakistani citizen under Article 20 of the constitution. Mr. Saeed had made a religious speech, he said, and the reference to jihad was not out of place as the Koran talks about it.
“In any case, Hafiz Saeed was not making a call for an armed uprising against anyone. Jihad also means inner struggle and it is part of Islam,” Mr. Dogar later told The Hindu .
