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| 03 December 2004 | Friday | 20 Shawwal 1425 |
Govt seeks dismissal of detained officers' plea
ISLAMABAD, Dec 2: The federation has asked the Supreme Court to dismiss appeals of six army officers and one civilian being held by military authorities because no violation of any fundamental right had taken place
, a senior court official said on Thursday.
Deputy Attorney-General Raja Mohammad Irshad told reporters that the federation had submitted its reply to the court, stating that the officers were taken into custody for their involvement in offences under the Pakistan Army Act, 1952, and that the accused were aware of their offence.
At the last hearing in October, the Supreme Court had directed the federation through secretaries of the ministries of Interior and defence and the Director-General of the Inter- Service Intelligence (ISI) to file a comprehensive reply in the detention case within a week.
Subsequently, the federation filed seven concise statements on Nov 4 before the Supreme Court, stating that the petitions were not maintainable since the detained personnel were serving officers of the armed forces and their arrest was under relevant laws applicable to the armed forces.
Relatives of the six army officers and a civilian being held by the military authorities for more than 18 months had filed petitions against their detentions. The rejoinder said that grievances made in the petitions related to procedural matters for which remedies were available to the aggrieved officers by way of representation under the Pakistan Army Act.
It said that the Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court had dismissed their petitions under the settled law and that the petitioners had not pointed out any error or illegality in the judgment.
The high court had rightly dismissed their petitions, it said, since these were filed under Article 199 of the Constitution when action against them was being taken under the Pakistan Army Act for being members of the armed forces.
It said the Supreme Court also had no jurisdiction to pass an order in relation to a person who is member of the armed forces or subject to the Army Act. Moreover, it said, the petitioners had also failed to make out a case justifying leave to appeal against the high court judgment.
Investigation process against these officers, the reply said, was in the final stages after which their trial under the Army Act would be held shortly and that they were not being dealt with under any other law or by any other agency or authority whatsoever.
The petitions were filed by Ms Yasmin Khalid, wife of Col Khalid Mahmood Abbasi; Ms Abida Parveen, wife of Lt-Col Abdul Ghaffar Khan; Ms Mumtaz Attaullah, wife of Maj Attaullah Khan Mehmood; Ms Farina Ruhail Faraz, wife of Maj Ruhail Faraz; Ms Khadija Adil, wife of Maj Adil Quddus Khan; and Ms Farzana Tasneem, mother of Capt Dr Usman Zafar - all under custody for violating the Army Act.
Sadia Sarwar Bhatti, the wife of Sarwar Bhatti, under detention for his alleged involvement in the first assassination attempt on President Pervez Musharraf at Jhanda Chichi in Rawalpindi, was also the mover of the application.
In their main appeal, the petitioners had challenged the orders of the Lahore High Court, Rawalpindi bench, which had dismissed the petitions of the army officers on the grounds that Section 2-d of the Pakistan Army Act, 1952, had taken away the jurisdiction of the court to proceed with the petitions.
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