KARACHI: Hearing of prisoners’ shifting case put off
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Nov 21: The Sindh High Court adjourned the hearing of petitions for production of two Pakistanis detained at US Guantanamo Bay prison for arguments on the question of jurisdiction.
Petitioner Farhat Paracha wants her husband shifted to Pakistan for heart surgery already scheduled by US doctors. She expressed the apprehension that Saifullah Paracha, a Karachi-based businessman who was invited to Bangkok by his Amercian business partner but was picked up surreptitiously on his arrival at the Thai capital for suspected links to Al Qaeda, faced threat to his life. In any case, he would get better care and medical facilities in his home country.
Petitioner Rabia Yaqoob her husband, Majid Khan, was taken into custody from his family flat in Munir Arcade, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Block 18, along with his brother, sister-in-law and suckling niece on the night between March 4 and 5, 2003. The brother, his wife and their daughter were released but the whereabouts of Majid Khan remained unknown till she received an Eid greeting card from him sent from Guantanamo prison through the International Red Cross.
She said any inquiry made from officials elicited threats and warning. The members of the family were asked to keep mum about Majid Khan’s appearance. She said Majid Khan, who lived in the United States with his parents, married her in Karachi in January 2003. Their only daughter was born on October 2003.
The bench comprising Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice Faisal Arab, which heard the petition, drew the attention of the petitioner’s counsel, Nisar A. Mujahid, to the provisions of Article 199 (1) of the Constitution, according to which the court can issue a writ of habeas corpus only if the allegedly wrongfully detained person was held within its territorial jurisdiction.
The SHC has already directed the authorities concerned to look after the safety and welfare of Pakistani prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and other foreign jails.
The bench adjourned the hearing to December 6 to determine the maintainability of the two petitions.
