LAHORE: Disposing of a property developer’s petition against summons issued to him by ‘Shariat Court’ of Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) on a complaint regarding a monetary dispute, the Lahore High Court directed the Punjab home secretary on Wednesday to look into the matter.

In his order, Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan directed the home secretary to treat the writ petition as an application and decide the matter in accordance with the law after hearing the parties concerned.

Khalid Saeed of Samanabad, who had filed the petition through Advocate Maqbool Sheikh, alleged that he had been forced to appear before an unconstitutional court set up by the religious organisation.

The petitioner said he had received the summons written on the letterpad of ‘Darul Qaza Al-Sharia’, Jamaatud Dawa, Masjid Al-Qadsia, Chauburji, Lahore, directing him to appear before its ‘arbitration court of Sharia’. The summons were issued to him on the complaint of Mohammad Azam who accused the petitioner of not returning his money invested in a property business.

According to the petitioner, the summons warned that in case of non-appearance, no excuse would be considered and he would be proceeded against in accordance with ‘Sharia law’. Khalid Saeed alleged that he had also received threatening calls from the Qazi of the JuD court asking him to appear before him.

The petitioner requested the high court to order the government to take action against the organisation for committing illegal acts and subverting the Constitution by establishing a parallel judicial system.

The petition had named the federal interior secretary, federal law minister, Punjab chief secretary, IG, Lahore police chief and Qazi Hafiz Idrees of JuD as respondents. They were represented by their counsel.

Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2016