September 12, 2003	Friday	Rajab 14, 1424

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PESHAWAR, Sept 11: A two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court on Thursday put the NWFP advocate general on notice in a writ petition challenging the detention of 11 foreign nationals including some Arabs under the Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR).

The bench comprising Justice Tariq Pervez and Justice Qaim Jan Khan also directed the superintendent of Peshawar central prison to provide medical treatment to two of the detainees stated to be critically ill. The court directed him to produce their medical records on next date.

The detainees were arrested mostly in Khyber agency while crossing into Pakistan from Afghanistan on different dates in 2002 and 2003, and were booked by the political agent under section 40 FCR and section 14 of Foreigners Act.

The petitioners are: Faiz Muhammad, Bashir and Yousaf Bin Yousaf of Palestine; Mehdi and Saad Raza of Iraq; Abudam Yousaf of Lebanon; Musa Muhammad and Tualah Yelghan of Tanzania; Havaldar Muhammad Ghulam Kibriya of Bangladesh: Ali Raza of Iran: and, Muhammad Umer Saeed of Somalia.

The petitioners have prayed the Peshawar High Court to declare their detention order illegal and they be set at liberty to travel to a country of their choice.

Advocate Qazi Muhammad Anwer appeared for the petitioners and argued that these detainees had not committed any crime on Pakistani soil and their detention was illegal. He pointed out that section 40 of the FCR was not applicable to them as they were foreigners and they had not committed any illegal act in the tribal area.

Mr Anwer argued that section 40 FCR was meant for maintaining order in the area and only those persons could be detained under it who were a threat to peace and tranquillity in the tribal area.

He held that most of these detainees had completed their prison terms under the Foreign Act and now keeping them imprisoned was illegal.

The counsel pointed out that two of the detainees, Mehdi and Yousaf Bin Yousaf, were seriously ill and they needed immediate medical treatment. He stated that Mehdi was suffering from heart ailment, whereas Yousaf was a diabetic.

The counsel added that they could not be treated inside the prison.