A judicial review board of
the Lahore High Court (LHC) in Pakistan has given the government two days to
file charge-sheet against Jamat-Ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed and his four
associates who are under house arrest since January 31 this year. The JuD chief
has filed a plea in the LHC against his detention and the next hearing is
scheduled for October 19.
During the last date of
hearing on October 10, the Lahore High Court had warned the Pakistan's provincial
Punjab government, which had put Saeed under preventive detention, to submit
evidence in the case otherwise it would release Hafiz Saeed.
Saeed, a UN and US designated
global terrorist with a US bounty of $10 Million on his head, along with his
four associates, was put under house arrest under the Anti Terrorism Act 1997
of Pakistan after increasing pressure from the US and the international
community.
The US, especially, warned that
Pakistan would be put on the list of blacklisted countries in the International
Cooperative Review Group (ICRG). That would have made it necessary for Pakistan
to put a formal request each time it went about transacting any business
through any of the international financial institutions. Then there was an
additional pressure element from UN's Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on
terror funding which was reviewing Pakistan's commitments.
Left with no other option,
Pakistan had to put Hafiz Saeed under house arrest but it was always a
reluctant move Pakistan's actions prove, like it has always been in giving
Hafiz Saeed a safe haven to operate.
Hafiz Saeed had adopted the
name JuD after its terror outfit, Laskar-e-Tayyiba (LeT) that basically
perpetrates terror in India, was banned by Pakistan on 14 January 2002 under
international pressure after the UN Security Council's Taliban-Al Qaeda Sanctions
Committee banned LeT. However, it did not affect his activities, perpetrating
terror and spewing venom against India including the November 2008 Mumbai
attacks that killed over 156 including six American citizens and left scores injured.
After his name surfaced in December
2001 Parliament attack, Pakistan was forced to arrest him but he was soon set
free. His detention after the multiple train bombing in Mumbai in July 2006,
that killed over 200, lasted only for few weeks. The same chores was repeated
after the November 2008 Mumbai attacks when Pakistan refused to press terror
charges and withdrew its appeal against Saeed and the global terrorist and
India's most wanted was again a free, respectable Pakistani citizen even if
India had named Saeed, JuD and LeT as masterminds and perpetrators behind the
attack and had submitted many dossiers containing evidence against them,
something that was even recognized the UN and the US.
Even if, in December 2008,
the UN Security Council, under its Resolution 1267, imposed sanctions on JuD
and Hafiz Saeed for supporting Al Qaeda and Taliban. All these years, it has been an unending drama of Hafiz Saeed being
put under house arrest or detained cursorily before being set free.
And it seems the same is
going to be repeated again. Like after the Mumbai 2008 attacks, Pakistan, this
time, too has refused to level terror charges against Saeed. On October 14,
Pakistan's provincial Punjab government withdrew terror charges against Saeed
and instead applied for detention of Saeed and his associates till October 24 under
the milder Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance (MPO). It was the fifth
extension of Saeed's house arrest since January 31.
Now if the judicial review
board doesn't get convinced by the arguments of the authorities on why to
detain Saeed for so long in spite of no serious charges being pressed against
him, Hafiz Saeed may walk free after his detention expires on October 24 as
authorities need judicial approval before extending the period of the
detention.
Pakistan's complicity also
becomes clear from the fact that though Pakistan first detained Saeed and
others for 90 days under the Anti Terrorism Act but later on switched to toothless
laws on maintaining public order.
And going by the tough
observations of the Lahore High Court that mere press clippings cannot be the
ground for detaining a citizen for an extended period of time and that Pakistan
does not seem to have substantial evidence against Saeed, it will be just a
matter of time before Saeed is free, respectable Pakistani citizen again.
©SantoshChaubey
