LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court on Tuesday allowed an application by Jamatud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed and other leaders to simultaneously announce verdicts in all cases of alleged terror financing against them.

At present, four cases are pending with ATC-I Judge Arshad Hussain Bhutta while arguments had already been closed in two others.

Allowing the application, the judge said `all cases shall be decided simultaneously at the end of this week along with the already two concluded cases.

Meanwhile, six more prosecution witnesses recorded their statements in the four pending cases and the judge adjourned hearing for Wednesday (today).

The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) had lodged 23 cases against the JuD lead-ers on charges of terror unancing.In these cases,the defence counsel had taken a stance denying allegations against the JuD leaders as baseless and a result of international pressure on Pakistan government.

He said the accused had been charged in false cases by wrongly attributing as leaders of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). He claimed that the leaders had been arrested in the light of the UN Security Council`s resolution No 1267.

He said it was an admitted fact supported by superior courts` decisions that the accused persons had already quit the LeT before the organisation was declared proscribed in 2002. The counsel alleged that the CTD registered the cases without any substantive evidence. Staff Reporter