Pakistan court reserves verdict on Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Saeed's Kashmir petition

A Pakistani court on Wednesday reserved its verdict on the maintainability of a petition filed by Mumbai attack mastermind and JuD chief Hafiz Saeed seeking directives for the government to take up the Kashmir issue at the UN Security Council and other international fora.

Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) chief Saeed had filed the petition in the Lahore High Court on August 12 seeking directives for the Nawaz Sharif-led government. Lahore High Court Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali heard the petition and reserved the judgement after hearing arguments from Saeed's counsel advocate A K Dogar.

Filed through his counsel Dogar, Saeed in his petition alleged that India had been committing "atrocities" on Kashmiris and "violating" the resolutions passed by the UN. He claimed that Indian forces were "killing innocent Kashmiris" and had "ruined their daily life".

The petetion alleged that India also did not give Kashmiris their right to self- determination.

"For the last more than one month, the Indian forces have been violating the human rights by continuously torturing Kashmiri people," Saeed is quoted as saying in the petition. He claimed that peace had been put on stake in the entire region. Saeed, through the petition, sought from the court an order for the federal government to take up the Kashmir issue at the Security Council in order to force India to obey the Security Council's resolution passed in April, 1948, and to highlight the issue at the international level.

Citing different judgements, Dogar said if an issue involves public interest, the court can interfere in political and foreign issues.

"Indian army is killing innocent Kashmiris but Pakistan government is doing nothing practically except issuing statements," he said. After hearing Dogar's arguments, the Chief Justice reserved the verdict on the maintainability of the petition.