Hafiz Saeed wants government to defend him in US court

[ajtr]

Hafiz Saeed wants government to defend him in US court​

LAHORE: Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, head of the banned Jamaatud Dawa, has moved the Lahore High Court seeking direction for the federal government to defend him, ISI chiefs and others before an American court which has issued summons for their appearance on a law suit filed by the relatives of US nationals killed in Mumbai attacks. Petitioner’s counsel AK Dogar stated that Rabbi Gavriel Noah Holtzberg and his wife Rivka were killed in a terrorist attack at the Chhabad House in Mumbai. Their son Moshe, who survived in the attack along with other people, has moved a US court against his client Hafiz Saeed, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, Azam Cheema and Sajid Majid as well as Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) former DG Nadeem Taj and current head Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha, ISI officials Major Iqbal and Major Samir Ali. He said the complainant accused them of providing material support for the November 26 attacks and demanded damages. Dogar stated that Hafiz Saeed was the head of the Jamaatud Dawa, which was a charity organisation and has no link with the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba. The Pakistan government had detained him in 2009 and a full bench of the LHC ordered his release, he added. Dogar said, on December 16, his client was served with summons from a US district court calling up him and ISI’s former and present heads and officials in connection with Mumbai attacks case. He said, on December 31, the Pakistan government announced to defend ISI head Lt Gen Pasha. Hafiz Saeed is also a Pakistani with the same rights as any other citizen, he maintained. He said in response to the summons, a reply had already been sent to the US court, rejecting the jurisdiction of American courts as international law did not allow exercise of jurisdiction over the person and property of other states. staff report