The President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Barrister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhry has set up a defence committee that will take legal action to secure the release of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front Chairman, Muhammad Yasin Malik who was convicted and sentenced by an Indian court in a manifestly dubious and politically motivated case last month.
The committee comprising of a team of barristers, including Barrister Tariq Mehmood, Barrister Karamat, Barrister Hasnat, Barrister Hafeez, Barrister Asad and Barrister Imran Khurshid from Ireland, will also approach legal experts in the UK and India to seek further advice on the matter.
The AJK President, while briefing media in Birmingham elaborated his idea of establishing a committee of legal experts: “In 1960s when Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah was in jail, at that time my father Chaudhry Noor Hussain sought services of Dingle Foot, the brother of prominent Labour leader Michal Foot, for his release from Indian jail.”
Dingle Foot, he recalled, had played an important role in the release of Sheikh Abdullah. “I am confident that this committee will also play a similar role to secure early release of the JKLF chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik”, he said, adding that besides seeking legal advice from other world bodies, including the Human Rights Commission, the committee would also approach the Indian government for grant of access to Yasin Malik so that legal action could be taken to secure his release.—KMS
