A Pakistani court on Saturday constituted a two-member bench to hear a petition filed by JuD chief Hafiz Mohd Saeed challenging two cases registered against him under the anti-terrorism act for inciting people to wage ‘jehad’ and inviting donations for the same, and the matter will be taken up on September 28.
Justices Asif Saeed Khosa and Najamuz Zaman will hear the constitutional petition filed by Saeed on Monday.
Police in Faisalabad city recently registered the two First Information Reports against Saeed, who has been blamed by India for masterminding the Mumbai attacks.
In his petition, Saeed has asked the High Court to quash the two FIRs, which he claimed had been registered due to pressure on the Pakistan government from India.
Saeed, also the founder of the banned Lashker-e-Taiba, was placed under house arrest in December last year after the UN Security Council declared the JuD a terrorist group. He was freed on the orders of the Lahore High Court in June.
He claimed in his petition that his release on the direction of the High Court had caused an “uproar in India” which had pressured the Pakistan government to take action against him.
Saeed claimed the two FIRs were registered against him on the charges that he delivered speeches inviting people to launch a holy war or ‘jehad’ against US, Israel and India because they “are hatching a conspiracy to wipe out Pakistan’s nuclear assets.”
He argued that the FIRs registered under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997 were not valid as the JuD, what he claimed, is not a banned organisation.
Saeed added that when his case was heard by the Lahore High Court earlier this year, a government lawyer had failed to produce any notification issued by the federal government to ban the JuD.
A K Dogar, Saeed’s counsel, said the petition also seeks the lifting of the ban imposed on the JuD by the UN Security Council.
Mr. Dogar claimed the world body’s restrictions on the JuD are “illegal and unlawful.”
Keywords: JuD, Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, Pakistan,
