ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan (SC) on Wednesday has nullified the Islamabad High Court verdict regarding release of Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi’s, the commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), who is accused of planning, financing and executing the November 26, 2008 attacks on Mumbai’s landmarks that had killed over 160 people.
A two-judge bench comprising Justice Jawwad S Khawaja and Justice Qazi Faiz Essa heard a plea filed by the federal government against the Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) decision to suspend the detention order and said the suspension is not valid.
Lakhvi was recently granted bail by an anti-terrorism court, however, the federal government had detained him under Maintenance of Public Order. Lakhvi challenged his detention in IHC which then suspended the detainment order. However, the federal government challenged this suspension in the apex court.
The appeal was moved on behalf of the interior secretary, district magistrate Islamabad capital territory and SSP Islamabad against the December 29 orders. The petition was drafted by Additional Attorney General for Pakistan Waqar Rana. It said that the respondent misrepresented contents of the federal capital’s detention order before the IHC.
During the course of hearing in the Supreme Court, the Attorney General contended that there is likelihood of the accused causing damage to the state’s key installations and at sensitive public places, provided that he is affiliated with a proscribed organisation. It also contended that the high court’s order was illegal and liable to be set aside, adding that the court had passed the order on a complete misreading of the law, without due consideration of the relevant facts and circumstances.
Chaudhry Afrasyab the counsel for Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi informed the court that the government is lodging FIRs consistently, so SC should halt government from lodging bogus FIRs.
Justice Jawwad S Khawaja was of the view that prima facie IHC had not heard the federation and issued interim order.
The apex court in its decision directed IHC to dispose of the Zakiur Rehman’s writ petition on January 12, while SC office has been directed to send orders to registrar IHC. All parties including Attorney General, Zakiur Rehman and others should appear before IHC for hearing of Zakiur Rehman’s petition against his six years long detention, SC said.
It is worth mentioning here that Lakhvi was arrested in February 2009 and was indicted along with six others on 25 November 2009 for planning and helping to carry out the Mumbai attacks.
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