An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Lahore on Monday granted pre-arrest bail to Jamatud Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed and three others in a case pertaining to alleged illegal use of land by the outfit for its seminary, media reports said.
The court granted interim bail to the accused – Hafiz Saeed, Hafiz Masood, Ameer Hamza, and Malik Zafar – until Aug 3 against surety bonds of Rs 50,000 each. During the hearing, the legal counsel of the accused insisted that JuD is not using any piece of the land illegally and urged the court to accept the bail petitions.
Meanwhile, the Lahore High Court (LHC) issued notices to the federal government, the Punjab government and the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) over a petition filed by Hafiz Saeed and his seven aides, challenging a case carrying charge of terror financing lodged by the CTD. A two-member bench of the LHC comprising Justice Shehram Sarwar Chaudhry and Justice Waheed Khan asked the parties to submit their replies within two weeks.
A lawyer for the federal government objected to the notices, arguing that the petition was non-maintainable. The bench, however, dismissed the objection and adjourned proceedings until July 30.
During the proceedings, Hafiz Saeed and the seven other petitioners were represented by senior lawyer AK Dogar. The other petitioners are Ayub Sheikh, Zafar Iqbal, Syed Luqman Ali Shah, Hafiz Abdul Rehman Makki, Abdul Salam, Abdul Ghaffar and Abdul Qudoos Shahid.
On July 3, top 13 leaders of the banned JuD, including Hafiz Saeed and Abdul Rehman Makki, were booked in nearly two dozen cases for terror financing and money laundering under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.
According to the joint petition submitted in July, the JuD leaders submitted that the facts narrated in the impugned FIR lodged on July 1 illegally described them as members of the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) and leveled unlawful allegation of terror financing. The federation through the secretary ministry of interior, Punjab government through the home department and the SHO CTD regional headquarters Lahore were made party in the petition submitted in the high court.
