Hafiz Saeed's detention case: Pak court defers verdict till July 3

Mumbai terror attack maste rmind and Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Saeed and his four aides will have to celebrate Eid in custody as Pakistan's Lahore High Court on Monday deferred its verdict till July 3 in their detention case.

"As a division bench headed by Justice Abdul Sami Khan today held the court to announce the verdict a government law officer requested it (bench) to defer it as the deputy attorney general was not present in the court," a court official told reporters outside the courtroom. Accepting the government s request, the bench deferred the announcement of its verdict in Saeed s house arrest case till July 3, the official said. The court official gave no further reason for deferring the announcement. "The bench will again sit on July 3 and announce the verdict in Saeed s case," he added.

The court had reserved the decision on June 7 after the Punjab government law officer submitted a reply and Saeed's counsel advocate A K Dogar completed his arguments.

The court had declared that it would announce the verdict in Saeed s detention case on June 19. Saeed and his four close aides - Abdullah Ubaid, Malik Zafar Iqbal, Abdul Rehman Abid and Qazi Kashif Hussain - have been detained on the instruction of the federal government for threatening peace and security of the country.