LAHORE: A Punjab home department report filed before the Lahore High Court on Tuesday said the activities of Jamatud Dawa (Jud) chief Hafiz Saeed, if released, would pose a great threat to public safety and cause breach of public order.

The report regarding a decision on a departmental representation filed by the JuD chief challenging his detention further said a number of cases had been registered against Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation (FIF) while the detainee had also launched campaign of his political party, which had still not been registered with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

It said Additional Home Secretary Azam Suleman personally heard the representatives of the Counter-Terrorism Department, other law-enforcement agencies and the JuD leader before dismissing the representation.

The report said Hafiz Saeed and other leaders of his organisations, namely the JuD and FIF, had been detained to stop them from collecting funds for their organisations. However, it said, the organisations of the detained leader carried on illegal collection of funds during his detention as 23 criminal cases had recently been registered against the FIF.

The report further stated that launching of a yet-to-be-registered political party — the Milli Muslim League — and a candidate for NA-120 by-election by the JuD leader reaffirmed the apprehensions of the law enforcement agencies that if the detainee was released his activities would create law and order problems. It said that all the law enforcement agencies strongly recommended to keep the JuD leader under detention in the larger public interest.

Justice Syed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi adjourned the hearing of a petition filed by the JuD leaders against their detention till Sept 19 as the organisation’s counsel sought time to go through the home department’s report. The petition filed through Advocate A.K. Dogar assailed detention orders issued on July 28 under sub-section 1 of section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, 1960, for 60 days.

Other petitioners include Abdullah Ubaid, Malik Zafar Iqbal, Abdul Rehman Abid and Qazi Kashif Hussain.

Published in Dawn, September 13th, 2017