Hafiz Saeed files petition over anti-Islam movie

Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed on Friday filed a petition in the Lahore high court, asking it to direct the Pakistan government to approach the International Court of Justice against the makers of the anti-Islam film.

Saeed said in his petition that United States President Barack Obama had condemned the movie in his speech at the United Nations General Assembly but had strongly defended the constitutional protection for the freedom of expression.

...

"Mere denial of the Holocaust is a crime in many Western countries as a German author and historian Ernst Zundel spent seven years of his life behind bars for expressing his views about the Holocaust," he contended.

Saeed asked the court to direct the government to initiate proceedings in the International Court of Justice against the makers of the film for violating the Universal Declaration of human rights.

...

The makers of the blasphemous film should be prosecuted and convicted for a crime against humanity, he claimed. He further asked the court to declare that the relationship of 'absolute servility' between Pakistan and the US is contrary to the fundamental rights of people as enshrined in Article 14 of the Constitution.

Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Tayiba and one of the masterminds behind the 2008 Mumabi terror attacks, has launched movements on several populist issues like US drone strikes and blasphemous cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

Some commentators have suggested he is preparing to enter politics though the Defence of Pakistan Council. Twenty-three people were killed and property worth billions of rupees was destroyed during recent violent protests against the anti-Islam film in cities across Pakistan.

...