Plea against detention of Saad Rizvi disposed of

LAHORE : The Lahore High Court on Thursday disposed of a habeas corpus petition against the detention of Hafiz Saad Rizvi, leader of proscribed Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), as it stood infructuous. A provincial law officer told the court that the Supreme Court had remanded the matter of Rizvi’s detention to a division bench of the high court for a fresh decision. Therefore, he said in the presence of the apex court order the habeas corpus petition had become infructuous. He also presented a copy of the apex court’s order before the court. At this, Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh disposed of the petition as infructuous. Rizvi’s uncle Ameer Hussain had filed the petition pleading that the court had on Oct 1 set aside the detention of the TLP leader and directed the government to release him if not required in any case.

The petitioner’s counsel argued that the government instead of releasing Rizvi got his detention extended through a federal review board. He said the act of the government was contempt of the court and the detention of Rizvi was illegal. However, the government later withdrew its application before the federal review board. The government had approached the Supreme Court against the LHC order whereby the detention of Rizvi was set aside. The apex court had suspended the operations of the LHC single bench order and remanded the case for a fresh decision by a division bench.