February 2, 2006	Thursday	Muharram 3, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Feb 1: Continued detention of a person under the Security of Pakistan Act, 1952, without giving him an opportunity to be represented by a counsel in a court was challenged in the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

In the petition filed under the Supreme Court’s original jurisdiction pertaining to fundamental rights, Shabir Ahmed, who has been confined in the Gujranwala Central Jail under the act for three years, sought a direction to the state for his production in a court and submission of record of his arrest and medical record.

Advocate Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta filed the petition on behalf of the accused and alleged that the Security of Pakistan Act was being misused by intelligence agencies, which arbitrarily arrested innocent people in the name of security.

The detention of such people was also being wrongfully extended by the review board of the court, he pleaded.

According to the petition, Mr Ahmed was picked up by security agencies from a village of Narowal three years ago and was being kept in an uncongenial environment where his health had deteriorated rapidly. His family came to know about his detention three months after his arrest.

Initially, he was detained for 90 days but since then the review board had been regularly extending his detention for three months.

Accusing the authorities of negligence in his treatment, the petitioner alleged that had suffered an injury during investigation and doctors had advised amputation of his hand.

The petitioner contended that the security act provided for special measures to deal with persons acting in a manner prejudicial to defence, external affairs and security of the country but it did not mean that an accused could be detained for a long period under the law.

He contended that the review board did not allow him to be represented by any counsel in contravention to fundamental rights guaranteed in the constitution.