KARACHI, Aug 23: A Sindh High Court division bench dismissed as withdrawn on Tuesday a petition challenging preventive detention of two alleged activists of outlawed militant outfits under the provisions of the Anti-Terrorist Act.
Petitioners Fatima Asim and Naheed Fatima said in their separate but identical petitions that Mohammad Asim Khan, Fatima’s husband, and Junaid Mohsin Alvi, Naheed’s son, were arrested by the police following crackdown on the banned religious organizations on July 28.
Challenging the notification of their confinement under the preventive detention provisions of the ATA, they said they had nothing to do with any banned religious organization.
Their counsel, Maqboolur Rehman, said the detainees were not associated with any religious or political organization. The detention was arbitrary and the SHC administrative judge for Karachi division’s anti-terrorism courts had ordered their release on bail.
He prayed the court to direct the respondent police and home departments to produce the list of cases registered against the detainees. The detainees, the lawyer said, were not freed despite submission of surety papers.
Additional Advocate-General Sarwar Khan informed the bench that the petition had become infructuous as the government had issued a fresh notification for the detainees’ arrest and confinement on the expiry of the earlier notification. They were notified under Section 11-EEE of the ATA and held under Section 11-EE of the law.
The counsel sought withdrawal of the petition in order to move a new petition to challenge the new notification.
A division bench, comprising Justices Ghulam Rabbani and Azizullah M. Memon, dismissed the petition as withdrawn.
The bench adjourned hearing of another petition against detention under ATA Section 11-EEE to Aug 30 and ordered the production of detainee Mohammad Kashif Khan on that date. Kashif was taken into custody on July 16 for being a dangerous activist of the banned Sipah-i-Sahaba.
On a request by the petitioner’s counsel, AAG Sarwar Khan said the members of the detainee’s family were free to meet him on Fridays. He said a fresh notification for detention for another month has since been issued by the home department.
Couple’s plea: A couple’s petition against their harassment by a retired official of the FIA was adjourned by a Sindh High Court division bench on Tuesday.
Syed Muzammil Ali and his wife, Ms Nuzhat Shirin, submitted in their petition that they were being booked in bogus cases and summoned by police at the behest of a compulsorily retired assistant director of the FIA. They requested the court to order quashment of the case registered against them and also order the police to ensure their personal safety.
