Hafiz Saeed, Four Others Challenge House Arrest in Lahore

Petitioners claim the US clearly told Islamabad that in case of inaction against JuD, Pakistan may face sanctions

Jamaat-ud-Dawa leader Hafiz Saeed. (Photo: AP)

Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Saeed and four others on Tuesday challenged their house arrest in the Lahore High Court.

LHC Justice Sardar Muhammad Shamim Khan will hear their petition on Wednesday.

Hafiz Saeed, Malik Zafar Iqbal, Abdur Rehman Abid, Qazi Kashif Hussain and Abdullah Ubaid challenged their detention through senior advocate AK Dogar.

Earlier, the LHC had dismissed a petition filed by a senior advocate Erum Sajjad Gull on ‘technical’ ground observing the petitioner had not furnished the impugned notification of Saeed’s detention.

The government on 30 January had put Saeed and four other leaders of JuD and Falah-e-Insaniat (FIF) under house arrest in Lahore under the country's anti-terrorism act.

In their petition, Saeed and four others said Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had claimed that the government was fulfilling its obligations under United Nations Security Council's resolutions.

The government has proved that the Pakistan is a servile and a dependent nation. We have been serving the country like iconic social worker Abdul Sattar Edhi for the last many years.

The petitioners said the US had clearly told Islamabad that in case of not following the advice to take action against JuD, Pakistan may face sanctions.

Previously, the petitioners said the government had used the same UNSC resolution for detaining Hafiz Saeed and a full bench of LHC had set him free.

“The government has no evidence that we are a ‘risk’ to security of Pakistan and merely on the basis of the UNSC resolutions our liberty cannot be curtailed,” the petitioners said.

Saeed, who is carrying a $10 million bounty on his head, was also put under house arrest after the 2008 Mumbai terror attack but he was freed by Lahore High Court in 2009