August 26, 2006	Saturday	Sha'aban 1, 1427

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LAHORE, Aug 25: Justice Muhammad Akhtar Shabbir of the Lahore High Court on Friday directed the Punjab home department to take a decision within two days on the representation made against the detention of Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the chief of the Jamaatud Dawaa Pakistan, failing which court would pronounce a verdict on Aug 28.

The court also took exception to the shifting of the Dawaa chief from his home to an unknown place for interrogation, seeking an explanation as to why he was taken away when the court was adjudicating a writ petition challenging his detention.

His counsel Nazir Ahmad Ghazi stated that the Dawaa chief was taken away by the police to an unknown place purportedly for interrogation and knowing if he had links with certain extremist and terrorism organisations.

He submitted that such an act was uncalled for and fell into the mischief of contempt of court because the high court was already considering the legality of the case.

The counsel also stated that Dawaa chief’s wife Maimoona Saeed, also the petitioner in the case, approached the home department some 12 days ago in a representation that the detention was illegal as no cogent reasons were recorded on the order issued under section 3 of the MPO.

Besides, he said, the detention order was flawed because it mentioned the name as Saeed Ahmad instead of Muhammad Saeed, the actual name of the Dawaa chief.

He also submitted that the order was not issued by a competent authority because no authorised officer of the home department had put his signature on it.

Additional advocate-general Muhammad Haneef Khatana submitted that the government had a cogent reason for Hafiz Saeed’s detention because he was planning to disrupt public peace by holding a rally at the Minar-i-Pakistan on Aug 12. Such a reason had been mentioned in the detention order which suffered no legal infirmity, he stated.

The court agreed with the counsel that the home department had delayed inordinately a decision on the representation for declaring the detention order illegal and setting him at liberty. The court directed the Punjab government law officer to ensure that the home department took one decision or the other till Aug 28 or court would give its own verdict.

Free legal aid: Pakistan Bar Council’s free legal aid committee chairman Ramzan Chaudhry said here on Friday that he planned to reorganise the committee on modern and scientific lines to reach the destitute and the needy to every nook and corner of the country.