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PESHAWAR, Feb 24: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday summoned officials of foreign and interior ministries in a contempt of court petition regarding deportation of four foreigners.
The bench comprising Justice Shahjehan Khan Yousafzai and Justice Saleem Khan directed the ministries to send responsible officers conversant with the case to assist the court on March 15.
Initially, a writ petition was filed against detention of 11 foreigners, mostly Arabs. It was disposed of in December, 2003 after the federal government held out the assurance that the detainees would be deported if they could arrange for their air tickets. A former MNA, Jawed Ibraheem Paracha, arranged for the tickets and the detainees were deported except for five which led to the filing of the contempt of court petition.
THE DETAINEES ARE: Musa Muhammad and Tualah Yelghan of Tanzania, Havaldar Muhammad Kibriya of Bangladesh and Muhammad Umer Saeed of Somalia. The fifth one, 80-year-old Yousaf bin Yousaf of Palestine, has been undergoing medical treatment at a local hospital.
Advocate Qazi Muhammad Anwer, who appeared for detainees, said their detention was illegal. The deputy attorney general for Pakistan, Hamid Farooq Durrani, told the court that he would contact the two ministries for ascertaining the latest position of the case.
The foreigners were arrested in Khyber Agency while crossing into Pakistan from Afghanistan between 2002 and 2003. They were charged under section 40 of the Frontier Crime Regulation and section 14 of the Foreigners Act.
