The Lahore High Court (LHC) here on Thursday sought reply by September 20 from ministry of foreign affairs on a law point that if government could defend a retired officer before a US Court then why the petitioner Hafiz Saeed was not entitled to the same facility.
Petitioner's counsel A. K. Dogar argued that former ISI chief after his retirement became a private individual, but the government was still defending him before the US Court along with other serving authorities. The counsel insisted that his client Hafiz Saeed enjoyed the same status, which a retired government officer enjoyed, therefore, the government was bound to defend him also like others. At this, court directed a deputy attorney general Naseem Kashmiri, present in the court, file a reply on behalf of ministry of foreign affairs in this regard.
On previous hearing, the ministry had informed the court that it was defending the ISI before the US Court being an institution of government, while LeT or its chief was not the part of the government. Therefore the government could not provide legal assistance to him or his organisation. The US Court had issued summons to Hafiz Saeed, ISI incumbent chief and other officials on a lawsuit filed by relatives of US nationals killed in Mumbai attacks.
US nationals Rabbi Gabriel Noah Holtzberg and his wife Rivka were killed by militants in Mumbai attacks. Their son Moshe was saved and he along with other persons filed nine claims against banned outfit Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) of Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, Azam Cheema and Sajid Majid as well as the ISI, its former chief Nadeem Taj and incumbent head, Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha and others. They were accused of providing material support for the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. For each of the claims, the plaintiffs have sought damages of 75,000 dollars.
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