On the eve of a visit by the UN Security Council’s (UNSC’s) sanctions monitoring team, a Pakistani court restrained the government on Wednesday, 24 January, from arresting Mumbai terror attack mastermind and JuD chief Hafiz Saeed till 17 March.
The Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) chief, who was listed under UNSC Resolution 1267 in December 2008, had, on Tuesday, moved the court seeking protection from arrest or action against the JuD and the Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation (FIF) ahead of the monitoring team’s visit.
The UN team will be visiting Islamabad on Thursday, 25 January, for an assessment of Pakistan's compliance with the world body's sanctions regime.
According to a media report, the Pakistan government will not allow the committee any direct access to Saeed or his entities.
In his plea, Saeed had said that the government wants to arrest him at the behest of the US and India, who have been lobbying for many years to prove that he was "somehow involved in the Mumbai attacks".
Lahore High Court Justice Amin Aminuddin Khan heard Saeed's plea and refrained the government from taking any adverse action against him.
"The LHC today (Wednesday) accepted JuD chief Saeed's application and issued order restraining the federal government from arresting him till further orders (sic)," a court official confirmed to PTI.
He said the court also issued a notice to the government to file its reply on 17 March.
Appearing for the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder, his counsel Advocate AK Dogar told the court that the UNSC delegation was due in the country this week and the government intends to take an "adverse action" against him during the team's stay in the country.
He said the government may arrest his client at the behest of the US and India.
The Punjab government, Dogar said, had detained Saeed for 10 months under the Maintenance of Public Order ordinance, but a judicial review board had rejected its application for extending his house arrest, last November, as it failed to justify his detention.
Saeed is the founder/chairman of JuD and FIF and he had set up 142 schools and three universities and was engaged in public welfare for a long time, Dogar said.
The UN team’s visit is taking place amid increasing pressure on Pakistan from the US and Indian governments with respect to inadequate implementation of the sanctions on Saeed and entities linked to him.
Last week, the US State Department had said that it has clearly conveyed its concern to Pakistan on Saeed and called for his prosecution "to the fullest extent of the law".
It also said that Saeed's name was on the UN list of designated terrorists.
The UNSC sanctions list includes the names of JuD, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Al-Qaeda, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, FIF and other groups and individuals.
The UNSC monitoring committee oversees the sanctions measures imposed by the Security Council under the rules. The member states are required to freeze, without delay, the funds and other financial assets or economic resources of designated individuals and entities.
Last week, Pakistan banned companies and individuals from making donations to the JuD, the FIF and other organisations on the UNSC sanctions list.
The JuD is believed to be a front organisation for the LeT, which is responsible for carrying out terror attacks in Mumbai that killed 166 people. It was declared as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US in June 2014.
(Published in an arrangement with PTI.)
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