Pakistan anti-terror court grants interim pre-arrest bail to Hafiz Saeed in seminary land case

The anti-terror court in Lahore granted interim pre-arrest bail to Jamat-ud-Dawa(JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed until August 31 in a case pertaining to the outfit's alleged illegal use of land for its seminary.

The interim bail was also granted to Hafiz Masood, Ameer Hamza, and Malik Zafar against surety bonds of Rs 50,000 each.

The JuD legal counsel insisted that the terror organization was not using any piece of land illegally and urged the court to accept the bail pleas.

Lahore High Court had issued notices to the Punjab government and the counter-terrorism department (CTD) regarding a petition filed by JuD chief Hafiz Saeed and his seven aides, challenging case carrying the charge of terror financing lodged by the CTD.

The two-member bench of the LHC comprising Justice Shehram Sarwar Chaudhry and Justice Mohammad Waheed Khan asked the parties to submit their replies within two weeks.

Lawyer for the government objected to the notices, arguing that the petition was "non-maintainable".

The bench dismissed the objection and adjourned proceedings until July 30.

During the proceedings, Saeed and the seven other petitioners were represented by senior lawyer A.K. Dogar

Other petitioners include Muhammad Ayub Sheikh, Zafar Iqbal, Syed Luqman Ali Shah, Hafiz Abdul Rehman Makki, Abdul Salam, Abdul Ghaffar and Abdul Qudoos Shahid.

According to the joint petition submitted earlier in July, the JuD leaders had submitted that the facts, narrated in the impugned FIR lodged on July 1, illegally described them as members of the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) and levelled unlawful allegation of terror financing.