KARACHI: Govt pledges to ascertain detainee’s whereabouts
KARACHI, May 26: The Sindh High Court was told by federal law officer on Thursday that efforts were being made to ascertain whereabouts of Ammar alias Ali Abdul Aziz, an alleged Al Qaeda financier. SHC’s division bench, comprising Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Justice Azizullah M Memon, was hearing the petition of Ms Marium challenging detention of her son by the law- enforcement agencies from Osmanabad in May 2002.
Khalid Mehmood Sheikh and Ramzi Yosuf were handed to US government while whereabouts of her son, Abdul Qadir and Abdul Karim Mehmood were still unknown, she mentioned in the petition, insisting that her relatives were not foreigners. She expressed apprehensions that her son may be handed over to the US government. The Sindh home department denied the arrest of Ammar in its comments, submitting he was not detained by any unit of LEA of the Sindh government.
Petitioner’s counsel Ghulam Qadir Jatoi told the court that another relative of petitioner, Abu Hashim, was taken by LEA on May 18. He said seven or eight members of petitioner family have so far been arrested. The court asked him to provide a list of these persons.
Standing Counsel Mehmood Alam Rizvi told the court that federal government agencies are making efforts to ascertain whereabouts of petitioner’s son and sought time to file definite statement in this regard.
The court fixed next hearing till June 2.
IRANIAN FAMILY: The Sindh High Court on Thursday took notice of detention of an Iranian family for the last two years despite expiry of their sentence and ordered that arrangements be made for their registration with the National Aliens Registration Authority (NARA).
Murtaza Hussain, Nayyara Murtaza and their child Anna, arrested in March 2003 by Nagarparkar police, were jailed for eight months on Sept 15, 2003, under Foreigners Act.
Their counsel Zia Awan said that the petitioners were languishing in jail since December 2003 after expiry of their sentence. Challenging the detention of the family, he said petitioners may not be repatriated in the given situation of danger to their lives. He said they were forced to flee from Iran due to persecution on the basis of their religious and political beliefs. The detainees were produced before the court by the jail authorities.
Zia Awan argued that Section 14 of Foreigners Act is against the spirit and essence of the Constitution of Pakistan guaranteeing equality, justice and no discrimination on the basis of sex, religion or political beliefs.
The court observed that there are apparent contradictions in Section 14 of Foreigners Act which requires explanation from government law officers and directed that rules of NARA be presented before it on the next hearing on June 2. The production orders of detainees were also issued for the next date of hearing. — PPI
