LAHORE, Dec 31: The federal government on Tuesday furnished the interior ministry’s orders before the Lahore High Court saying Dr Ahmad Javed Khwaja and his four family members had been detained initially for a period of three months for being involved in anti-state activities at the behest of a “foreign country” and an “organization”.
On the last hearing, the state had been directed to produce two sons and a nephew of Dr Khwaja before the LHC whose whereabouts could not be disclosed following their arrest on Dec 19 from Manawan area.
Justice Bashir A. Mujahid accepted the state version that the doctor’s family members had been detained under a proper order and could not be produced in person due to security reasons. It, however, observed that the detainees should not be moved outside the jurisdiction of LHC and allowed the family members to see them in the DIG Lahore’s office between 11am and 1pm.
The proceedings were adjourned till Jan 3 with an observation that the petitioners’ counsel could challenge this detention through a petition in the meanwhile.
Earlier, while showing the orders dated Dec 30, to the court, the Punjab Advocate-General (AG), Maqbool Elahi Malik, submitted that he had been directed to represent the federal government as well. He disclosed that — Dr Ahmad Javed Khwaja, Ahmad Naveed Khwaja, Dr Umar Karar, Dr Khizar Ali, and Mohammad Usman — had been detained under section 3(b) of The Security of Pakistan Act, 1952. Both Dr Javed Khwaja and Naveed Khwaja have already been nominated in a case being heard by an anti-terrorism court.
The court was further informed that the federal government had directed the Punjab home secretary to detain these five persons in any jail of Punjab for three months.
A memorandum of the grounds of detention addressed to the detainees by the interior ministry was also shown to the court which reads as “the federal government is satisfied that you have been involved in anti-state activities in Pakistan while acting on behalf of a foreign country and an organization, and thus your activities have been prejudicial to the security of Pakistan. Therefore, with a view to prevent you from acting further in this manner, you shall be detained in any jail in the province of Punjab with immediate effect”. The order has been signed by Irfan Khan Jadoon, a section officer (police) of the interior ministry.
The AG submitted that three persons — Dr Umar Karar, Dr Khizar Ali and Mohammad Usman — had been brought to Lahore and could be produce before the court.
He, however, requested the court that they should not be ordered to be produced since the matter in which they had been detained was quite sensitive to the sovereignty of the country. He feared that in case of their production before the court, the detainees were likely to speak in public on the issue of their detention which could not be allowed in the public interest.
While mentioning the grounds of detention, the AG submitted that under section 3(b) of The Security of Pakistan Act, 1952, the federal government could pass orders for the detention of any person found to have been acting on the instructions of any enemy of the state or attempting to act in a manner prejudicial to the integrity, security and defence of Pakistan. As read out by the AG, this section authorises the government to detain that person for a maximum period of 12 months.
He further cited section 6 of the act, saying the state while furnishing the grounds of detention was not bound to disclose those facts whose disclosure was considered to be against the public interest by it.
The AG argued that all the detainees had a legal right to make an appeal to the authorities concerned in this regard.
