April 01, 2007	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 12, 1428

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RAWALPINDI, March 31: Justice Abdul Shakoor Paracha of the Rawalpindi Bench of the Lahore High Court has issued a notice to the Punjab government to submit its reply regarding the arrest of a number of People’s Party leaders who were arrested several days ago in order to weaken the protest movement against the ‘suspension’ of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

Petitions have been filed by family members of Sardar Shaukat Hayat Khan, a PPP leader and former president of the High Court Bar Association Rawalpindi, Sultan Mehmood Qazi, member of the PPP Punjab council, Iqbal Razaq Butt, former PPP minister in the Azad Kashmir government and a local PPP leader Agha Taimur. They were arrested on March 23.

Sardar Shaukat Hayat has been kept in the Mianwali Jail and the latter three in the Attock Jail.

When the case was opened on Friday, Shah Khawar Advocate and Babar Ali Advocate appeared on behalf of the petitioners. Shah Khawar Advocate said the arrested people were innocent and their detention had no justification.

He said the arrests were made on March 23, and the detention orders had been passed on March 26. They were not produced before any court which was a mandatory requirement under the law.

The petitioners said that under article 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code, a district nazim was supposed to provide an opportunity to a person or persons indicated by the district police officer for arrest.

They said the detention had been carried out under section 3 of Punjab Maintenance of Public Order 1960.

Shah Khawar Advocate said there was no such law. “The relevant law in this regard is the Maintenance of Public Order 1960.

“In 1960, there was One Unit and no Punjab province existed,” he said. “This shows the real intentions of the government,” he added.