PESHAWAR, July 13: A two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court on Tuesday put the deputy attorney-general on notice in a contempt-of-court petition filed by a former MNA, Jawed Ibrahim Paracha, against the detention of four Arabs.

The bench comprising Justice Ijaz Afzal and Justice Fazlur Rehman fixed July 20 for hearing and directed that DAG Hamid Farooq Durrani should appear on the day. During the last hearing, the court had issued the notice to the DAG, but he did not turn up on Tuesday.

Advocate Qazi Muhammad Anwer appeared for the petitioner and stated that despite the court orders the four detainees had not been deported. He pointed pout that a previous writ petition had been disposed of when the government gave an assurance that with the provision of air tickets the detainees would be deported.

The petitioner stated that he had provided air tickets to the government. He pointed out that one of the detainees, Yousaf bin Yousaf, was about 80 years old and had been suffering from many ailments.

He said the old man was kept in Adiala Jail, Rawalpindi. He identified the other detainees as Abdullah, who also has the British nationality, Muhammad Umer (Somalia) and Musa Muhammad (Tanzania).

The high court had on Dec 10 directed the federal and provincial governments that the petitioner would provide for the air tickets and the detainees should be deported.

The four men were arrested while crossing into Pakistan from Afghanistan on different dates in 2002 and 2003. They were charged by the political agent concerned under section 40 of the Frontier Crime Regulations and section 14 of the Foreigners Act.