LAHORE: Justice Tariq Nadeem of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday sought a report from the registrar office on fixing the hearing of a petition against detention of Hafiz Saad Rizvi, the leader of proscribed Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), before a single bench instead of a division bench as the case was related to the anti-terrorism law.

As the single judge resumed hearing, a counsel for the petitioner pointed out that on the previous hearing, the office was directed to fix the case before a two-judge bench since it involved provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997.

At this, Justice Nadeem adjourned the hearing for a week and sought a report from the office on fixing of the petition before a single bench.

Previously, Justice Muhammad Shan Gul had sought a reply from the special secretary home on a point whether the fresh detention of Rizvi had been approved by the cabinet. The judge had also directed the office to fix the petition before a two-judge bench for further hearing.

The petitioner had contended that the government detained Rizvi on political grounds. He said a review board of the high court had turned down a government’s request to extend detention of Rizvi under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance 1960.

However, he said, the government with mala fide intention extended detention of Rizvi under Section 11 EEE of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 for another 90 days.

The petitioner stated the government had implicated Rizvi in 14 criminal cases after detaining him. The detention of Rizvi had come after his organisation (TLP) staged sit-ins across the country, demanding the government expel the ambassador of France in the wake of blasphemous cartoons. The protesters had turned violent and attacked the police personnel.

The government detained him under the ATA 1997 after his 90-day detention expired on July 10.

LDA levy case: A Lahore High Court two-judge bench on Tuesday sought assistance from the advocate general of Punjab on an intra-court appeal (ICA) by the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) challenging a decision of a single bench striking down the powers of the authority to levy or recover the commercial fees.

The single bench had given the impugned verdict against the LDA allowing dozens of petitions filed by the owners or tenants of the properties who were asked to pay conversion fees under 2014 rules for carrying out commercial activity at their property.

The verdict declared that the LDA could not levy or recover conversion fee from the roads or segments of roads declared commercial as per List A or otherwise converted for commercial use.

The division bench, headed by Justice Chaudhry Muhammad Iqbal, asked the advocate general to assist it in the matter on Aug 23.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2021