19 February 2004	Thursday	27 Zilhaj 1424

PESHAWAR, Feb 18: A two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court issued notice to the deputy attorney-general of Pakistan on Wednesday in a contempt of court case filed by a former MNA, Jawed Ibraheem Paracha, against detention of four Arab nationals.

The bench, comprising Justice Tariq Pervez and Justice Ijaz Afzal, directed that the DAG should appear before the court and clarify the position regarding the detention of four Arabs in Adiala jail near Rawalpindi.

The high court had directed the federal and provincial governments on Dec 10 that the petitioner, Jawed Ibraheem Paracha, would provide for the tickets of the detainees and they should be deported.

The federal and provincial governments had made the commitment that if the petitioner provided for the tickets of the detainees they would be released and deported.

Qazi Mohammad Anwer advocate appeared for the petitioner and argued that by not obeying the court orders, the departments concerned had committed contempt of the court.

He also produced a letter of the provincial government, stating that the provincial government had sent a letter to the federal government for the release of the detainees so that they could be deported. However, he added, no reply had been received from the federal government.

The bench observed that the deputy attorney-general would be summoned so that he could clarify why the federal government had not been releasing the detainees.

The petitioner had initially filed a writ petition against detention of 11 foreigners, mostly Arabs. During pendency of the writ petition three of the detainees - Ali Raza of Iran, Abudaham Yousaf of Lebanon and Jabbar Mehdi of Iraq - were deported to their native countries.

The 11 detainees were arrested mostly in the Khyber Agency while they were crossing into Pakistan from Afghanistan in 2002 and 2003, and were charged by the political agent under section 40 FCR and section 14 of the Foreigners Act.

In December 2003, two out of eight detainees were shifted to Adiala jail from Peshawar. The deputy attorney-general and the advocate-general had told the court that they were not required in any case and the charges against them under the FCR would be dropped.

However, after the petitioner provided tickets to the government, four of the detainees were deported, whereas the remaining four had been kept at Adiala jail.