LAHORE - A writ petition was filed in the Lahore High Court on Friday seeking directives for Interior ministry to put the names of Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif, law minister Rana Sana Ullah, and ex-IGP Mushtaq Sukhera on Exit Control List (ECL).
Pakistan Awam-i-Tehreek filed the petition through its counsel Ishtiaq Chaudhary, stating that important persons of the Punjab government including Nawaz Sharif, Dr Tauqeer Shah, the then-DIG (operations) Rana Abdul Jabbar, SP Abdur Rahim Sherazi and others involved in Model Town tragedy had fled the country.
According to media reports, he maintained, Shehbaz Sharif was also planning to go abroad. He requested the court to order the ministry to put the CM’s name on ECL.
Govt gets time to file reply in Hafiz Saeed detention case
The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday gave time to the Punjab Home Department to file a rejoinder to a petition challenging detention of Hafiz Saeed and his aides.
Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi passed the order when the counsel for the petitioners submitted a written reply to the previous stance of the home department that Hafiz Saeed would become a security threat if released.
The counsel for the department asked the court to give him some time to submit a rejoinder to the petitioners’ reply to the court. The court accepted the plea and adjourned the hearing until Sept 26.
Rehman and Qazi Kashif Hussain were detained on January 28 but their detention orders expired on July 27. The previous detention orders were issued by the Punjab government under II-EEE of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, but now these orders have been issued under the Punjab Maintenance of Public Order, 1960.
The petitioners, however, challenged the new orders through their counsel A K Dogar and submitted that the government was due to release them on July 27 but it again issued their detention orders. They said the government decision was a violation of human rights and freedom guaranteed by the 1973 Constitution. They also termed their detention as an inhuman act. On January 28, the Interior Ministry had suggested the provincial government to put Hafiz Saeed and his aides under detention, saying that Jamaatud Dawa and Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation were engaged in certain activities, which could be prejudicial to peace and security and in violation of Pakistan’s obligations to the UNSC Resolution No 1267. The Punjab government placed both organisations in the second schedule of ATA under its section 11-D (1).