January 12, 2007	Friday	Zilhaj 21, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Jan 11: The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a federal government appeal to freeze the accounts of a Senator from Balochistan because of his alleged links with the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), proscribed by the government in 2005. Led by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, a three-member bench observed that Senator Shahid Hassan Bugti of the Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP) had not been convicted by any Anti-Terrorist Court (ATC) nor was there any convincing evidence that he belonged to the BLA.

Deputy Attorney General Nahida Mehboob Ellahi informed the court that through a notification issued by the interior ministry in 2005, the BLA was declared a terrorist organisation. The notification had also directed the banks to freeze the accounts of all members of the organisation, she said.

On the request of the interior ministry, the finance ministry asked the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to freeze all bank accounts of the Senator, whose name was also included in the notification.

Senator Bugti came to know of the development when two cheques of Rs100,000 and Rs20,000 issued by him on separate occasions were dishonoured.

The Senator moved the Balochistan High Court which declared that the freezing of his bank accounts was not justified as he was not issued a show-cause notice or afforded a hearing before the action was taken.

The court also held that a person could not be punished by simply saying that the government had reasons to believe in his involvement in activities detrimental to the interest of the state.

Only the ATC had the authority to declare someone terrorist and order freeze on his bank accounts on terrorism-related charges, it said.

The federal government approached the Supreme Court with a request to annul the decision of the Balochistan High Court.

During the course of hearing, the chief justice also asked the deputy attorney-general to convince the court that the Senator was involved in any terrorist activities. However, the deputy attorney general only repeated the government claim that the federal government had reasons to believe that the Senator was a BLA member.