Lakhvi's release order yet to be received by jail officials

While the Pakistan government's law experts are finding a way to keep Lashkar-e-Tayiba operations commander Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi behind the bars, the jail authorities have not yet received the release order of the 2008 Mumbai attack mastermind.

"We are discussing several options to keep Lakhvi behind the bars. A decision in this regard is likely anytime today," a law officer involved in the government's consultation with its law team over the matter told PTI.

He admitted that it is difficult for the government to go for the option of detaining Lakhvi, 55, again under the Maintenance of Public Order which had been suspended twice by the Islamabad high court and Lahore high court.

"We also discussed challenging the LHC verdict in the supreme court but at the moment the government will have to do something before the release of Lakhvi," the officer said.

The Lahore high court on Thursday suspended the Punjab government's order to detain Lakhvi under a security act and ordered his immediate release.

On the other hand, Rawalpindi's Adiala Jail authorities have not yet received the LHC order to release Lakhvi. "We haven't yet received the LHC order regarding release of Lakhvi," a jail official told PTI.

To a question whether the Punjab government had directed the superintendent of Adiala Jail not to release Lakhvi, the official said: "The jail authorities will go by law in the case of any inmate."

Lakhvi's counsel Raja Rizwan Abbasi also confirmed to PTI that the LHC order had not been delivered to the Adiala jail authorities as yet.

"A person of our legal team today left for Rawalpindi, some 275 kilometers from here, to deliver the LHC order to the Adiala Jail superintendent. Hopefully by Friday evening Lakhvi will be out of the jail," Abbasi said.

"The government is left with no other 'legal option' but to release his client after the LHC suspended his detention. Neither the government nor the Adiala Jail authorities can violate the court's order this time," he said, adding the jail authorities should release Lakhvi by tomorrow as the court order is being submitted to them.

"Neither the federal nor Punjab governments can issue another detention order of Lakhvi after the verdicts of the Islamabad high court and Lahore high court against his detention. It will be a contempt of court if the government issues another detention order," he said.

The government, he said, also could not arrest his client in any other case as the IHC had stopped it from doing so without bringing the matter to its notice.

Lakhvi and six others have been charged with planning and executing the 2008 Mumbai attack that killed 166 people and wounding over 300.