Terrorist Hafiz Saeed moves Lahore High Court, challenges Pakistan government ban on his charities

Islamabad: Mumbai attack mastermind and Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed has filed a petition in the Lahore High Court challenging the Pakistan government's ban on his social welfare activities.

According to reports, the JuD chief has challenged the ban imposed by the Interior Ministry of Pakistan on his outfits – JuD and charity organisation Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation (FiF).

Saeed has filed the petition through his counsel advocate AK Dogar. 

He submitted to the LHC that the Interior Ministry on February 10 issued a notification with regard to the freezing of bank accounts and taking over assets associated with the JUD and FiF under the Anti-Terrorism (amendment) Ordinance 2018.

"The government of Pakistan acted under the pressure of foreign powers, including UN and India," he said and contended that Pakistan is a sovereign independent state and makes its own laws to govern its citizens.

"If there is a conflict between the laws of the land and any provision of United Nations Security Counsel Act, 1948, the law of the land shall prevail," he said.

The LeT co-founder further said the FiF owns 369 ambulances, helped 72,000 persons to charity hospitals and treated 600,000 patients only in 2017.

"JuD dug out 2000 wells for supplying water in Tharparkar, Baluchistan and Balochistan," he claimed in his plea.

Saeed has pleaded to the court to declare the impugned notification of the Interior Ministry null and void with regard to taking over the assets of the organisations.

Separately, Saeed had last week challenged the presidential ordinance under which his group has been banned for being on the watch-list of the United Nations in the Islamabad High Court.

President Mamnoon Hussain last month promulgated an ordinance amending the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 with regards to proscription of terrorist individuals and organisations to include entities listed by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) - in a move to declare Hafiz Saeed-linked JuD and Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF) as proscribed groups.

Saeed, who is accused of having masterminded the November 2008 Mumbai attack, was placed on the terrorism blacklist by the United Nations in December 2008.

The banned JUD head was released from the house arrest in November last year after the Pakistan government decided against detaining him further in any other case. He was under house arrest since January last year.