Islamabad - The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Wednesday sought reply from Interior Secretary and District Coordination Officer (DCO) Okara in a contempt of court petition moved by Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, operational commander of banned outfit Laskhar-e-Tayyaba (LeT), against his detention orders for 30 days under maintenance of public order (MPO).
In this regard, a single bench of IHC comprising Justice Noor-ul-Haq N Qureshi also directed both the respondents to appear before the court in person on April 14 and submit their reply.
It was March 13 when the same IHC bench had permitted Lakhvi’s petition against his detention order and said “the petitioner be set at liberty immediately, if he is not required in any other case.”
However, the same day on March 13, DCO Okara issued detention orders of Lakhvi for further 30 days under MPO.
The counsel for Lakhvi, Raja Rizwan Abbasi Advocate, contended before the court that IHC bench had declared his client’s detention order by district magistrate Islamabad as illegal. He maintained that despite this fact, the DCO Okara issued his detention order that is contempt of court.
After hearing his arguments, the IHC bench directed the said respondents to submit their reply till April 14 and deferred the hearing for further proceedings.
Lakhvi is operational commander of banned militant outfit LeT and an alleged mastermind of the Mumbai terror attacks of November 26, 2008. An anti-terrorism court had granted post-arrest bail to Lakhvi against one million rupees surety bonds on December 18, 2014.
In another matter, an IHC division bench comprising Justice Noor-ul-Haq N Qureshi and Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui directed IHC registrar office to fix National Accountability Bureau’s application against acquittal of former President Asif Ali Zardari from Ursus and ARY gold corruption references together.
On Wednesday, the IHC bench was hearing in NAB’s application against acquittal of Zardari from Ursus tractors corruption reference. A NAB prosecutor told the court that the bureau has also filed an application against Zardari’s acquittal from ARY gold corruption reference. Since both the applications were similar in their contents, so these may be heard together. The IHC bench accepted this plea and directed registrar office to fix both the applications together and adjourned the hearing in this matter.