LAHORE: Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) Chief Hafiz Saeed’s house arrest will be set aside if the authorities do not submit evidence against him, High Court here said Tuesday.
Saeed is under house arrest since January 31.
LHC had summoned the interior secretary for the hearing along with complete record of the case related to Saeed’s detention along with four others.
However, he did not appear on the mentioned date. Irked by his absence, the court observed that “no citizen can be detained for an extended period on the basis of merely press clippings”.
“The conduct of the government shows it has no substantial evidence against the petitioners. The detention of the petitioners will be set aside if no concrete evidence is presented before the court,” Justice Syed Mazhar Ali Akbar Naqvi said.
The judge adjourned hearing till October 13.
Saeed and his four aides – Abdullah Ubaid, Malik Zafar Iqbal, Abdul Rehman Abid and Qazi Kashif Hussain – have been placed under house arrest in Lahore under the anti-terrorism act.
On September 25, the house arrest of Saeed and others was extended for another 30 days by the Punjab government.
