The Pakistan Government has informed the Lahore High Court that it will not defend Jama’at-ud-Da’wah chief Hafiz Saeed in the civil law suit filed in a U.S. court by some relatives of victims of the Mumbai terror attack.
A submission to this effect was made in the court on Monday by the Deputy Attorney General on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. According to the federal government, it would defend Inter Services Intelligence Director General Shuja Pasha as he is a part of the state machinery.
A Brooklyn court had issued summons to Lt. Gen. Pasha and the JuD chief besides some other ISI personnel in the case filed by relatives of Jewish nationals killed in the Chabad House. In December last year, Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani had said in Parliament that the ISI chief would not be made to appear before a U.S. court as legislators expressed concern over the summons to the ISI chief.
Soon after the Prime Minister made this commitment, Hafiz Saeed demanded that the Pakistan Government provide him legal assistance also in the U.S. court; arguing that as a Pakistani citizen, he should be given the same rights as any other national.
