Lahore: Pakistan's Punjab government on Tuesday challenged the Lahore high court's decision to suspend the detention of LeT operations commander and 2008 Mumbai attack mastermind Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi in the Supreme Court, saying his release has created problems for it.
The Punjab government in its petition pleaded the apex court that the LHC had suspended the detention of Mumbai attack case accused Lakhvi under Maintenance of Public Ordinance despite seeing "sensitive documents" against him.
The government said the release of 55-year-old Lakhvi had created problems for it. "Besides, there are chances that the investigation into Mumbai attack case may also be affected because of the release of Lakhvi," the government argued in the petition.
It requested the apex court to suspend the order of the LHC and restore the detention of Lakhvi under the security act. The SC office will fix the date of hearing. Lahore high court Justice Muhammad Anwarul Haq on April 9 had suspended Lakhvi's detention as the government failed to present "sensitive documents" against him in the court.
The government's counsel presented "sensitive reports" prepared by the intelligence agencies about the activities of Lakhvi but the judge expressed dissatisfaction over it observing "the reasons cited by the government for the petitioner's detention were not enough".
On April 10, Lakhvi was released from Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi after about six years of his arrest in the Mumbai attack case. The government managed to keep him behind the bars under the security act for nearly four months since the trial court granted him bail on December 14, 2014. Pakistan faced strong criticism from India over the release of Lakhvi.
Earlier, Lakhvi's counsel Raja Rizwan Abbasi argued that after the LHC's earlier direction he had filed a representation before the Punjab home secretary against his "illegal" detention but the home secretary dismissed it and upheld the 30-day detention order issued by District Coordination Officer, Okara.
Reacting to the court verdict on Lakhvi, India said this "eroded" the value of assurances repeatedly conveyed to it by Pakistan on cross-border terrorism. India's External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said "our concerns on this issue have been made known to the Government of Pakistan in the past. These shall be reiterated.”
Lakhvi and six others - Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Hamad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jameel Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Younis Anjum - have been charged with planning and executing the Mumbai attack in November, 2008 that left 166 people dead. Lakhvi was arrested in December 2008 and was indicted along with the six others on November 25, 2009 in connection with the 26/11 attack case. The trial has been underway since 2009.
Meanwhile, the Islamabad hight court on Monday set a two-month deadline for the trial court to decide the Lakhvi case, otherwise it would accede to Pakistan government's plea to cancel Lakhvi's bail.
