LAHORE, March 27: The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled in its detailed judgment that the 1973 Constitution, Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997 and all other relevant laws were completely silent on the question as to whether Al-Qaeda was a terrorist organization and was a threat to both national and global peace.

The detailed judgment was released by the division bench comprising Justice Javed Iqbal and Faqir Muhammad Khokhar, which had dismissed the State’s appeal last month against the release of three Khwaja family members — Dr Umar Karar, Dr Khizar Ali, Muhammad Usman — by the LHC.

In its 30-page judgment, the SC ruled that after having gone through the provisions of the Constitution, ATA, Security of Pakistan Act of 1952 and Qanoon-i-Shahadat, it had concluded that these laws did not specifically declare Al-Qaeda as a terrorist organization.

The LHC had the authority to dismiss a detention order which was based on malafide intentions, observed the SC. It further remarked that satisfaction of the detaining authorities should not be based on whims and suspicion. Rather concrete evidence should have been collected against the persons detained on charges of having links with Al-Qaeda.

The court refused to give any weightage to the statements of the three detainees made before the police saying these statements did not have any legal value since the detainees made them during their detention. To what extent these statements could be relied upon needed no comments, ruled the court. The SC questioned as to how could it examine the material claimed to be acquired by the State against the detainees once it had not been produced before the LHC.

The court is unable to understand that the State was willing to produce such material before the Review Board but did not furnish it with the LHC during the hearing of Khwajas’ petition.