KARACHI, June 13: An Iranian couple and their minor daughter were mistakenly registered by the National Aliens Registration Authority (Nara) and the government had ordered cancellation of their registration, Deputy Attorney-General Sajjad Ali Shah informed a Sindh High Court division bench seized of their petition for release and repatriation to a third country on Monday.
The DAG, who had sought time on June 9 for obtaining instructions from the federal interior ministry on the issue of their repatriation, stated that the Nara Act was meant to register aliens who entered Pakistan before July 10, 2001, to legalize their stay for a maximum period of one year. The aliens who illegally crossed over to the country after the cut-off date, as the petitioners admitted did, were not entitled to be registered. They had to be dealt with under the Foreigners Act. The petitioners could approach the UNHCR for relief.
The bench, which consisted of Justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Amir Hani Muslim, observed that the petitioners should be helped to obtain relief from the UNHCR. It wondered whether the head of the family could be allowed to go to Islamabad to pursue its case for repatriation to a third country. Further proceedings were adjourned to July 5.
Earlier, Advocates Zia Ahmed Awan and Itrat Hussain Rizvi referred to Section 14 (2) of the Foreigners Act, under which the petitioners had to remain behind bars indefinitely. Even the federal review board could not recommend their detention beyond one year, the lawyers argued.
Petitioners Murtaza Hussain and Nayyara Murtaza and their minor daughter, Anna, were picked up when trying to cross over to Indian territory from the Pakistan border, which they had entered from Iran without legal documents. They were convicted under Section 14(2) of the Foreigners’ Act on March 31, 2003, and sentenced to simple imprisonment for eight months with the benefit of remissions and a fine of Rs 500 each and Rs50 for the minor or, in default, imprisonment for 15 days more.
Under the penal provision and the order based on it, they were to remain in custody till their repatriation arrangements. The convicts served out their sentences in December 2003 but remained in prison, because they did not want to return to Iran for fear of persecution.
Provincial attorney Abdul Jabbar Lakho said according to the record received by him, the petitioners had approached the UNHCR under the human rights declaration but their application was declined as Murtaza was said to be a fugitive from law. The jail authorities could not release them under the law. Their cases had been duly reviewed by a federal review board, chaired by a Supreme Court judge as provided by Article 10 of the Constitution.
