PESHAWAR, July 20: A two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court on Tuesday summoned officials concerned of the ministries of interior and foreign affairs in a contempt of court petition filed by a former MNA, Javed Ibraheem Paracha, against detention of six foreigners.

The bench comprising Justice Tariq Pervez and Justice Qaim Jan Khan directed Deputy Attorney General Hamid Farooq Durrani, to ask the officials concerned to appear in court on July 29, and explain the status of the six detainees.

Advocate Qazi Muhammad Anwer representing the petitioner stated that despite the orders of the High Court, the detainees had yet not been deported. He pointed out that the previous writ petition was disposed of after the government had given 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. The six detainees are: Talha Yalghan and Musa Muhammad of Tanzania, Yousaf Bin Ali of Libya (having a British passport), Yousaf Bin Yousaf of Palestine, Hawaldar Kibriya of Bangladesh and Umer Saeed of Somalia.

The DAG stated that they were not sure about nationalities of some of the detainees. He added that one of the detainees, Kibriya, some times claimed that he was a Pakistani, whereas the petitioner claimed that he belonged to Bangladesh.

Moreover, he added that the nationality of Umer Saeed was also not known as the Somalian government had disowned him. The bench observed that the nationality of the detainees could be easily verified. The bench added that even the detainees could be asked about their nationalities.

Mr Paracha stated that the nationalities of four of the detainees were known and they should be deported in accordance with the order of the High Court. The high court had on Dec 10, 2003, directed the federal and provincial government that the petitioner, Jawed Ibraheem Paracha, would provide for the tickets of the detainees and they should be deported.

The petitioner had initially filed a writ petition against detention of 11 foreigners mostly Arabs. During the pendency of the writ petition, three of the detainees were deported to their native countries.