PESHAWAR, May 6: Ten foreigners, including two Tajik boys and an Egyptian family, have filed bail petitions, seeking their release in cases relating to overstay in Pakistan.
An additional district and sessions judge, Ahtesham Khan, will take up their petitions for hearing on May 10.
Their bail petitions were earlier dismissed by a judicial magistrate on April 28.
An intelligence agency had handed them over to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on April 18 and the agency had registered FIRs against them under the Foreigners Act and charged them for illegal stay in Pakistan.
The detainees were produced before the court for the first time on Apr 20 and have now been in the Peshawar central prison on the orders of the judicial magistrate.
The Egyptian petitioners are: Farooq bin Saad, his sons Abdur Rehman, Obaid and Abdullah, his wife Fatima; and, daughters Aasia, Barah and Khadija. Farooq and one of his daughters are blind, while his wife is partially paralysed and walks on crutches.
The two Tajik boys, Said Akber alias Hussain, 14, and Khalid Maroof, 16, were arrested by the Pakistan Army in 2004 in the South Waziristan tribal agency.
The bail petitions were filed by the president of Peshawar District Bar Association, Haji Fida Gul.
The Egyptian family was arrested from the Dwa Sarae village in Charssada district on May 23, 2005 by an intelligence agency. Initial media reports, which relied on an unnamed intelligence agency, had suggested that the Egyptians were linked with Al Qaeda.
In their petition, they contended that they had entered Pakistan on valid legal documents and said that they should be released so that they could arrange for proper documents through their embassy.
The Egyptians claimed that the head of their family, Farooq, was an engineer and was working with a firm in Egypt, Al Fanoon-i-Taskeliya. They claimed that their father had come to Pakistan about 19 years ago during the Afghan war and started working for an NGO.
The two Tajik boys, Hussain and Khalid, were aged only 12 and 15, respectively, at the time of their arrest on Nov 23 and Oct 1, 2004, respectively.
Both boys said they belonged to the Urjinzabad area of Tajikistan. The army had told the media about their arrest during a press briefing. They were produced before the media on Nov 25, 2004. Khalid was over powered by a tribal lashkar after a toy-bomb killed four local students. Later, he was handed over to the military authorities. Hussain was arrested at Speen Kamar in the Makeen area of the South Waziristan Agency.
BAR POLLS: The annual elections of the Peshawar High Court Bar Association will be held on May 27.
According to the polls schedule that was announced by the election commissioner, Akhter Ali Khan, the last date for filing nomination papers was May 13 while scrutiny would be completed on May 15.
The final date for withdrawal of nomination papers was May 16 and the final list of candidates would be released on May 17.
Outgoing president Iqbal Khan Mohmand belongs to the People’s Lawyers’ Forum while the outgoing general secretary Asthagfirullah Khan belongs to the Awami National Party.
