LAHORE, Dec 24: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday issued orders against the extradition of Dr Ahmad Javed Khwaja’s two sons and a nephew from Pakistan whose whereabouts have not been disclosed following their arrests in an early morning raid in Manawan last week.

Justice M. Javed Buttar, hearing a petition filed against the arrest of Khwaja’s nine family members, further sought the latest update in writing from the federal government regarding the whereabouts of the three detainees and the progress on the interrogation on Dec 27.

The court was presented a letter from the federal government, saying the three people — Dr Umar Qarar, Dr Khizar Ali (sons of Dr Javed Khwaja), Muhammad Usman (son of Naveed Khwaja) — were currently being interrogated by a “federal investigation agency”.

When inquired which federal investigation agency was interrogating these persons, the deputy advocate-general expressed his ignorance, and submitted that the letter faxed from Islamabad was the only piece of information he could deliver to the court.

The court, while issuing the restraining orders, directed that the three detainees must not be taken outside the jurisdiction of the LHC.

Earlier, Punjab Advocate-General (AG) Maqbool Elahi Malik informed the court that four family members of Dr Khwaja — Ahmad Nadeem Khwaja, Muhammad Ali, Hassan Ahmad, Farooq Mir — arrested from Manawan during a joint operation of the American FBI and the local agencies, had been released by the Punjab government.

He submitted that Dr Javed Khwaja and Naveed Khwaja had been named in an FIR registered under Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, and six other supplementary charges mentioned in CrPC. He disclosed that they were already in a three-day physical custody of the police.

He showed complete ignorance regarding the whereabouts of the other three family members and sought time for seeking instructions from the federal government.

The court, however, observed that four days had already lapsed since the filing of the petition and the state counsel was supposed to know every minute detail in this regard.

The petitioners’ counsel, Hamid Khan, alleged that the three were likely to be taken abroad and during the preliminary hearing of the petition the deputy advocate-general had assured that they would not be extradited from Pakistan.

The court observed that it could only allow two days to the state for disclosing the whereabouts of the detainees after passing a restraining order against their feared extradition.

The AG, however, said the order could have serious international repercussions on the credibility of the country. The court rejected this argument after which the AG sought one hour time for seeking fresh instructions.

Following the resumption of proceedings, the court was informed that the detainees were being interrogated by a federal investigation agency in connection with the same charges levelled against Dr Javed Khwaja and Naveed Ahmad. It was held, though, that their names had not been mentioned in the FIR yet they should be assumed as co-accused of Dr Khwaja.

The AG contended that all the three people were foreign nationals and for this reason their custody had been taken over by the federal government.

When asked for proofs about their foreign nationality, the AG said according to his information two were Saudi nationals while the third one was enjoying Egyptian nationality.

Replying to another query, both the AG and the DAG submitted that under the present laws, no accused could be extradited to another country without holding extradition proceedings.

The court observed that even these proceedings could not be held without holding a preliminary inquiry on the request of the country seeking the extradition and, therefore, the three persons could not be taken abroad without the fulfilment of this legal procedure.

The petitioners’ counsel submitted that the three accused, disclosed as foreign nationals, were also Pakistani nationals and the state was using the tag of foreign nationality as an excuse for handing them over to the foreign agencies.

He commented that the words of the federal agency used in the letter presented to the court actually alluded to the FBI which should now be considered a federal agency.

He further presented a press photograph showing Dr Khwaja and Naveed Ahmad being brought to the ATC on Monday with their faces covered, and protested over the treatment meted out to the two.

The court directed him to produce the national identity cards of the three accused to support his argument. It further directed the investigating officer to let the family members meet Dr Khwaja and Naveed Ahmad detained at the Chuhng police station.