KARACHI, July 19: The managing director of a satellite TV channel was neither arrested, nor detained by the agencies working under the defence ministry, the Sindh High Court was informed on Wednesday.
SHC's division bench, comprising Justice Maqbool Baqar and Justice Munib Ahmed Khan, was hearing a petition filed by Abeera Munir who alleged that her spouse Munir Ahmed Mengal, head of a Dubai-based satellite TV Channel Baloch Voice, was taken into custody by the law enforcement agencies as soon as he reached Karachi airport from Dubai on April 4.
In compliance of the court orders, the secretary, ministry of defence, Lt-General (Retd) Tariq Waseem Ghazi, filed an affidavit submitting that the detainee was neither apprehended nor wanted in any case, nor was held by the Inter Services Intelligence and Military Intelligence.
The secretary, however, made it clear in the affidavit that the ministry exercises only administrative control over the ISI and the MI and it does not have any operational control or jurisdiction to enforce the court's directions on the said agencies.
He submitted that the ministry can only pass every direction received from the court to the said agencies for strict compliance and their replies are submitted before the court.
He further submitted that the task of locating and recovering missing persons does not fall under their purview and they do not have the mandate for ground check in such cases.
He stated that the agencies were tasked to locate and produce the detainee before the court and they reiterated that said detainee was neither apprehended nor wanted in any case nor held in their custody. He further added that no trace of detainee has so far been found.
However, the court was assured that information regarding whereabouts of detainee as and when comes into their knowledge the same will be submitted before the court.
After receiving the affidavit by the secretary of defence, petitioner's counsel Rasheed A Rizvi sought time to go through the same. The court, granting the request, adjourned the hearing for July 20.—PPI
