Staff Reporter – Lahore:
The Supreme Court’s Lahore Registry has stopped the authorities from implementing the Lahore High Court’s order to release Saad Hussain Rizvi, the chief of the defunct Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan or TLP, who was arrested earlier in the year for inciting violence.
The Punjab government had challenged the Lahore High Court’s order to release the TLP chief. On October 1, the Lahore High Court had declared the detention of Saad Rizvi “illegal” and ordered his release. The government now says that the release order did not fulfil all legal requirements.
On Tuesday, a two-member bench comprising Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan and Justice Sayyed Mazhar Ali Akbar Naqvi heard the government’s plea.
During the hearing, Punjab government’s lawyer said that during the protests in April 2021, twelve people, including three policemen were killed. Saad Rizvi was detained in April after he called for protests to press for the expulsion of the French ambassador.
The high court’s review did not extend the detention of Saad Rizvi, the lawyer said.
Justice Naqvi asked the government lawyer if a gazetted notification had been issued for Rizvi’s detention under the Anti-Terrorism Act. The lawyer said that the government had indeed issued the notification.
Saad Rizvi’s uncle and lawyer Burhan Moazzam, who had filed a petition calling for ending what he said was Saad Rizvi’s “illegal detention.” He argued that the government does not have the authority to extend the detention.
The case was probably not handled properly by both sides, Justice Naqvi said.
When Justice Naqvi asked if Moazzam accepted that the violence had taken place, Saad Rizvi’s uncle said that the TLP chief was already in prison when the riots broke out. Saad Rizvi has been in prison for six months without any reason, his lawyer argued.
The Supreme Court assured that injustice will not be done to anyone. It sent the case to the Lahore High Court. The bench sent the case to the Lahore High Court. The court said that a two-member special bench of the Lahore High Court should decide it after hearing the case, the Supreme Court said.
He was detained in April over the charges of “inciting” Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan followers to violence and was taken into custody after protests were staged all over the country, calling for the expulsion of the French ambassador. He was detained under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance or MPO of 1960.
