Chief militant of banned terror group Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) Hafiz Saeed and four others have challenged their house arrest in the Lahore High Court (LHC).
Saeed, Malik Zafar Iqbal, Abdur Rehman Abid, Qazi Kashif Hussain and Abdullah Ubaid challenged their detention through senior advocate AK Dogar on Tuesday.
LHC Justice Sardar Muhammad Shamim Khan admitted their petitions and posted the matter for further hearing on Wednesday.
Earlier, the LHC had dismissed a petition filed by a senior advocate Erum Sajjad Gull on 'technical' ground observing the petitioner had not furnished the impugned notification of Saeed's detention.
The government on January 30 had put Saeed and four other leaders of JuD and Falah-e-Insaniat (FIF) under house arrest in Lahore under the country's anti-terrorism act.
In their petition, Saeed and four others said the government in light of interior ministry's order detained them for a period of 90 days (with effect from January 30) in exercise of powers under section 11-EEE(1) of Anti Terrorism Act 1997. They said interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had claimed that the government was fulfilling its obligations under United Nations Security Council's (UNSC) resolutions.
"The government has proved that the Pakistan is a servile and a dependent nation. We have been serving the country like iconic social worker Abdul Sattar Edhi for the last many years," they said.
The petitioners said the US had clearly told Islamabad that in case of not following the advice to take action against JuD, it (Pakistan) may face sanctions.
Previously, the petitioners said the government had used the same UNSC resolution for detain Hafiz Saeed and a full bench of LHC had set him free.
"The government has no evidence that we are a 'risk' to security of Pakistan and merely on the basis of the UNSC resolutions our liberty cannot be curtailed," the petitioners said and prayed to the court to declare the government order being mala fides without jurisdiction and void the fundamental right to their life and liberty and ordered for their liberty.
Hafiz Saeed is wanted by India and the US for his alleged role in masterminding the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai that claimed 166 lives. He even carries a bounty of USD 10 million (over Rs 66 crore) on his head for his role in the attack.
He was put under house arrest after the 2008 Mumbai terror attack but he was freed by Lahore High Court in 2009.
While Pakistan claims to have banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in 2002, following an attack on the Indian Parliament, it re-emerged as Jamat-ud Dawa (JuD). The United States has designated the JuD as a front for the LeT.
