DEFENCE AND FOREIGN SECYS TO DISCUSS HAFIZ SAEED IN US
NEW DELHI: India and the US will discuss this week further action to be taken against Pakistanbased terror group Lashkar-eTaiba (LeT) emir Hafiz Saeed, Indian and US officials familiar with the matter said. The background is the Islamabad high court’s decision on March 9, paving the way for the registration of Saeed’s Milli Muslim League as a legitimate political party.
This will be one of the key focus areas of meetings when foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale and defence secretary Sanjay Mitra engage their counterparts in Washington this week, the officials cited above said.
The two secretaries are going to Washington for three days starting Tuesday to work out the agenda of the so-called 2-plus-2 dialogue between the Indian and US foreign and defence ministers on April 18. India’s ambassador to the US Navtej Sarna was in India this month to brief the two secretaries.
ISLAMABAD:Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed has moved court against a presidential ordinance that enabled the Pakistani government to take action against individuals and entities proscribed by the United Nations Security Council.
Challenging the ordinance in the Islamabad High Court, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief, through his counsel Raja Rizwan Abbasi, said it is “illegitimate and injurious to the country and a calculated effort to undermine its sovereignty.”
He pleaded that authority of declaring entities as proscribed has been given to the United Nations. “The ordinance is violative of law negating the sovereignty of Pakistan hence liable to be declared unconstitutional,” his lawyer contended.
By virtue of the ordinance, Abbasi said, powers have been given to the United Nations which is dominated by “US and different other enemy countries which are termed as G-8.”
He said promulgation of the ordinance is not only prejudicial to the sovereignty but also violative of specific articles of Pakistan’s Constitution.
“How can the authority to amend the ATA (Anti Terrorism Act of 1997) be given to the UNSC as this is the job of parliament or federal government?,” he added.
Justice Aamer Farooq issued notices to the principal secretary to the president and the secretaries of law, cabinet division and establishment division.
The ordinance amended Sections 11-B of ATA, which sets out parameters for proscription of groups, and 11-EE, which describes the grounds for listing of individuals. Both the sections now include sub-section AA, according to which organisations and individuals “listed under the UN (Security Council) Act, 1948 (XIV of 1948)” will be included for proscription either as organisations or individuals, on an ex-parte basis.