LAHORE: Rejecting the Punjab government’s plea, a Pakistani court has directed the authorities to summon all concerned and decide on a complaint against Jamat-ud-Dawah (JuD) for running a Taliban-style judicial system here.
While disposing off the petition over the matter, Lahore High Court’s Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan ordered the home secretary of the Punjab government to summon all concerned and decide the matter “strictly in accordance with law”.
The law officers of the federal and provincial governments told the court that the petition was not maintainable as the JuD is a “private organization” and this matter could not be challenged in the court.
A counsel for JuD told the court that “JuD sharia court summons” issued to the petitioner is “fake”.
“The JuD is not running a parallel judicial system in the country. The summons is fabricated,” he said, requesting the court to dismiss the petition.
Petitioner Khalid Saeed, a resident of Lahore, said he received summons written on letter pad of ‘Darul Qaza Al-Sharia’ of JuD with a direction to appear before its ‘arbitration court of sharia’.
The petitioner said he also received telephone calls from the Qazi (judge) of the JuD court asking him to appear before him.
JuD, led by Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed, set up the Sharia Court, a Taliban-style parallel judicial system in seven cities of Punjab.
The court which is named as “Darul Qaza Sharia”, is established primarily to provide ‘easy and swift justice to the people.
The complaints are addressed to the chief of the group (Saeed) who later refers them to Qazi (judge) for further proceedings.–PTI
