KARACHI: Govt given last chance over ‘missing’ activists
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, June 13: The Sindh High Court gave the federal defence and interior ministries a last chance to submit their comments on two petitions alleging illegal confinement of two activists of the Jamhoori Watan Party.
Abdur Rauf Sasoli, JWP deputy secretary-general, was picked up and whisked away in his own car by four uniformed and one plainclothes policeman as he came out of Safari Park on Feb 3. His brother’s petition against the arrest was pending when Saeed Brohi, a Karachi official of the party and an eye-witness to the Feb 3 incident, was taken away on March 10.
The court asked the two ministries to file comprehensive rejoinders to the petitions several times. As the petitions came up for hearing on Tuesday, federal government counsel Tariq Ali regretted that he had been unable to obtain the necessary information and rejoinders. He sought two weeks more for compliance.
Advocate Noor Naz Agha, the petitioners’ counsel, said the government had already inordinately delayed its response, though the petitions allege unlawful detention. If at all more time had to be allowed to it for replies, it should be allowed as a last opportunity for the government.
A division bench comprising Justices M. Mujibullah Siddiqui and Mohammad Saeed Athar adjourned the hearing to June 27 as the deadline for government rejoinders.
reinstated: The Sindh High Court reinstated former jail superintendent Shabbir Jan Sarhandi by setting aside a provincial government notification on Tuesday.
The petitioner was superintendent of the Central Prison, Karachi, when the Supreme Court convicted him of contempt in 2000. He had delayed a meeting between a prisoner and the then advocate-general at the behest of the provincial government allowed by the Supreme Court. The court took suo motu notice of his failure to comply with its order and imposed a fine on him. It also directed the provincial government to proceed against him.
