The Lahore High Court on Wednesday issued notice to the home department for October 2 in an application of Jamatud Dawa (JuD)'s Chief Hafiz Saeed and others challenging extension of their department for another 30 days. The court while issuing notice to the respondents questioned as to how one could be detained for collecting hides of sacrificial animals only, one of the grounds taken by the government to justify detention of the JuD's leaders.
The court said the government should have stopped the organizations of the petitioners from collection of the hides if the act was illegal. The petitioners' counsel, AK Dogar, argued that the government detained the JuD's leaders on the basis of mere apprehensions. He said under the law no presumption and assumption could give rise to any apprehension unless it was supported by some piece of evidence.
The counsel argued that an order of preventive detention had to satisfy but in the instant case blatant violation of laws had been committed by the government. He said imprisonment without trial and conviction was prima facie unlawful and unconstitutional. Other petitioners include Abdullah Ubaid, Malik Zafar Iqbal, Abdul Rehman Abid and Qazi Kashif Hussain.
The department in its report submitted before the court said that all the law enforcement agencies strongly recommended detention of the JuD leaders in the larger public interest.