February 07, 2007	Wednesday	Muharram 18, 1428

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KARACHI, Feb 6: Former Balochistan chief minister Sardar Akhtar Mengal moved the Sindh High Court through Advocate Azizullah K. Shaikh on Tuesday challenging his in camera trial in jail.

Mr Mengal, who is being tried by an anti-terrorism court for taking two army personnel hostage, assailed the trial court’s decision to restrict public entry at the trial, bar Human Rights Commission Secretary Iqbal Haider and allow only his son, Gurgain Mengal, and his uncle Mehrullah Mengal to attend the trial. He said his three nephews, including Changez Khan Gichki, had been disallowed entry by the judge, a petition against whose `bias’ was pending in the Sindh High Court.

Citing the 1973 case of Mairaj Mohammad Khan and a 1992 case of Asif Ali Zardari, he said the high court held that the public and media had a right to watch a trial. Curbs can be imposed only to ensure the security and safety of the judge, the witnesses and the counsel.

An open public trial was held to be ‘one of the surest guarantees of citizens’ liberties’. The courts were required by the SHC judgments ‘to be doubly vigilant against denial of an open public trial’. Justice, it was emphasised, should not only be done but should seem to have been done, Mr Mengal said in his petition.