PESHAWAR, July 1: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday dismissed two petitions challenging the alleged detention of two cousins by the army for more than three months.
A bench comprising Justice Tariq Pervez and Justice Dost Mohammad Khan observed that the habeas corpus petitions had become infructuous as all the respondents had categorically stated that the detainees, Sohail Rehman and Kashif Jamal, were not in their custody.
The court observed that the aggrieved people could avail legal remedy by registering an FIR of kidnapping of the two men. The petitioners' counsel Abdul Lateef Afridi contended that during last hearing the court had recorded in camera statements of two relatives of the detainees, who were picked with them but released later on.
He said that from their statements it could be derived that they were detained somewhere around the Chaklala air base and there were persons in army uniform there. Mr Afridi requested the court to specifically mention the registration of the FIR in its order as the detainees were taken away by armymen and nobody would register a case against them.
The bench observed that the petitioners could move the court again if the case was not registered. At the outset of the proceedings, Deputy Attorney-General Hamid Farooq Durrani said the defence ministry's section officer concerned, Anwer Rafi, had faxed a letter dated June 29 and stated that the General Headquarters had denied the custody of the two men.
He said Pakistan Army covered the entire machinery, including intelligence agencies. Mr Afridi said the claim of the respondent was a pack of lies. He said the statements of the two other detainees proved that theywere picked up by the army.
Justice Pervez observed that directives could not be issued to any one as all the respondents had expressed ignorance about the missing men. Mr Afridi said this was not the first case of its kind and many more cases would follow it.
He said people were taken away in a mysterious manner and their whereabouts were not known. The bench observed that the intelligence agencies were there to protect people and for protecting 140 million people they could pick up two persons.
"Why they have not picked up you or me? They might have done something wrong," Justice Pervez observed. The petitions were filed by agriculture scientist Dr Abdur Rehman and his relative Mohammad Aslam Khan. Dr Rehman is a former managing director of a multinational company, Monsanto Pakistan Agri Tech.
He claimed that his son Sohail Rehman, who had spent more than three years in Toronto and held a permanent resident card of Canada, was picked up by some officials in plainclothes and army uniform from his residence in Dera Ismail Khan on March 12 at about 3am.
Mohammad Aslam stated that his three nephews, Kashif Jamal, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Farooq, who are also nephews of Dr Rehman, were picked up from their residence in Dera Ismail Khan.
Mohammad Asif and Kashif Jamal were released a few days ago. The respondents in the petitions were, the federal government through the defence and interior secretaries, the NWFP government through the home secretary, the Dera Ismail Khan district police officer and the SHO of the Dera Ismail Khan cantonment police station.
