LAHORE, Feb 17: An anti-terrorism court on Monday reserved till Feb 19 judgment on an application of Dr Ahmad Javed Khwaja and Ahmad Naveed Khwaja against their trial in jail.

The Khwajas had submitted that the Punjab home department could not issue orders for their trial in jail on the charges of opening indiscriminate fire on a police party and harbouring Al Qaeda activists.

Defence counsel Pervez Inayat Malik argued that his clients did not expect a fair trial in jail. This would amount to denial of their legal right to a fair hearing. The impugned orders have been issued to frustrate the orders of the court regarding the production of the Khwajas before it.

He submitted that under Section 15 (3) of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997, it was the prerogative of the court to decide the place of trial and the provincial home department could not issue such directions on its own.

Prosecutor Rana Bukhtiar submitted that the trial could be ordered in the jail by the authorities concerned for security reasons. He argued that the Khwajas had been detained in Punjab on the orders of the federal government and the provincial home department was the appropriate authority to make arrangements for the trial of the high-profile accused like the Khwajas.

The intentions of the provincial government were to arrange the trial at a secured place and it should not be taken as the gross contempt of court orders, the prosecutor argued.