March 19, 2002	Tuesday	Muharram 4, 1423

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

PESHAWAR, March 18: Despite repeated notices by the Peshawar High Court, the federal government has failed to file comments in reply to two separate petitions challenging the detention of alleged Al Qaeda members and Pakistanis, who had crossed into Pakistan from Afghanistan.

Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Salahuddin Khan on Monday informed a two-member bench of the high court that the federal government had been compiling the comments, which would be filed within next few days.

The bench comprising Justice Nasirul Mulk and Justice Qaim Jan Khan took exception to the delay, and directed the federal government to positively file comments within a week. The bench ordered that the two cases should be fixed next week.

The petitions were filed by a former PML(N) MNA Jawed Ibraheem Paracha, challenging the detention of 57 alleged Al-Qaeda suspects and 143 Pakistanis.

Advocate Qazi Muhammad Anwer appeared for the petitioner, and argued that the government had been using delaying tactics. The court had issued directives on various occasions, but the government turned a deaf ear to them, he added.

The court inquired from the DAG as to why the government had not been filing its comments, and observed that he should ask the government about filing the comments.

NWFP government has already submitted its comments in these cases more than a month ago.

The provincial government has claimed that the Al-Qaeda suspects were taken into custody by the Pakistan Army under the security of Pakistani laws, and hence the petition challenging their detention was not maintainable.

It has also stated that the detainees belonged to differed terrorist outfits including Al-Qaeda, and were sent back to Afghanistan by the Pakistan Army. About 143 Pakistani, the provincial government has stated that the detainees were arrested under section 40 of Frontier Crimes Regulations, and were under-trial prisoners.