ISLAMABAD: The government’s legal team did not appear to be serious in securing the detention of Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi – the alleged mastermind of the Mumbai attacks – as they did not produce the relevant records before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) and also delayed referring the matter to the review board to extend his detention.

On Mar 13, the IHC set aside Lakhvi’s detention order, observing that the prosecution failed to produce the material “on the basis of which, it could be ascertained that the detention of the petitioner (Lakhvi) is justified”.

Read: IHC’s Lakhvi verdict triggers Indo-Pak diplomatic spat

Lakhvi was detained under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) on Dec 18, 2014, the day the Anti Terrorism Court (ATC) in Islamabad granted him post-arrest bail in the Mumbai attacks case.

The court, on Dec 29, hearing a petition filed by Lakhvi challenging his detention suspended the detention order. However, on Jan 7, the Supreme Court restored Lakhvi’s detention and directed the IHC to decide the matter after hearing the stance of the federal government.

Also read: Lakhvi back in detention on Punjab home dept's orders

During the hearing of the petition, the government’s lawyer disclosed that “the material (regarding Lakhvi’s detention) has been referred to the review board just two days earlier”.

These contentions have also been reproduced in the order released on Mar 13.

The court further noted that the government lawyer “admitted the legal requirement that it (the review board) could have been approached 15 days prior to the lapse of the last detention order issued by the district magistrate of Islamabad”.

Since Dec 18, the Islamabad district magistrate has issued three consecutive orders for Lakhvi’s detention.

Also read: Govt finally finds lawyer to prosecute Lakhvi

The first was issued on Dec 18, the second on Jan 16 and the third was issued on Feb 13, which was going to expire on Mar 13. Under the law, this matter must be referred to the review board on or before Feb 28.

The review board is formed under Section 4 of Article 10 of the Constitution to examine cases.

According to Article 10, the district magistrate cannot extend the detention of a person for a period exceeding three months and only the review board can give further extensions, up to one year.

The IHC constituted a three-member review board, consisting of Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Amir Farooq on March 12, a day before Justice Noorul Haq N. Qureshi set aside the detention order.

The IHC, during the hearing of Lakhvi’s petition on March 11, was informed that Lakhvi’s fate would be decided by the review board therefore the material related to this case was to be produced before the board.

Justice Qureshi, in his order of Mar 13, observed that the respondent – in this case, the federal government – did not place any material before the court which they intended to place before the review board.

“Nowhere [do es the] law prohibit placement of material before the high court while exercising constitutional jurisdiction. Such avoidance, by itself, shows mala fide on the part of respondents, who instead of deciding the issue expeditiously, wanted to prolong it for an indefinite period.”

A senior law officer, when approached comment, said that Islamabad Advocate General Mian Abdul Rauf was responsible for giving his legal opinion to the district administration regarding the extension in Lakhvi’s detention. “He was pleading this case in the IHC and it was his responsibility to place the record before the IHC.”

The law officer said that since Justice Qureshi has set aside the detention order, the IHC review board cannot take up the matter. The Punjab government has also issued a detention order for Lakhvi, therefore, this matter can be referred to the Lahore High Court review board if the government wanted to detain him for over next three months.

When reached for comment, Mr Rauf told Dawn that he could not comment on Lakhvi’s detention since he was representing the federal government in the matter.

Published in Dawn, March 15th, 2015

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