KARACHI, May 18: The Sindh High Court on Friday ordered the production of an Al Qaeda suspect on May 22 if he was confined by any agency within the province. The order was passed by a division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Justice Ali Sain Dino Metlo on a petition filed by Advocate Maqboolur Rehman for recovery of the suspect, Wasif Farooqui. A CID official informed the bench that a police party went to Lahore to arrest four Al Qaeda suspects, including Wasif Farooqui, belonging to Sindh.

Hearing about 13 petitions agitating ‘disappearance’ or unlawful confinement of as many people, the bench asked the interior and foreign ministries to inform it on May 25 whether any of the missing persons was in American custody at Guantanamo Bay.

Among other detainees are Muneer A. Mengal of the ‘Baloch Voice’, Salim Baloch of the Jamhoori Watan Party, Dr Ali Raza Zaidi and Mufti Munir Shakir. Advocates Abdul Hafeez Lakho, Chaudhry Mohammad Iqbal, Haider Imam Rizvi and Umair Nisar appeared for the petitioners.

Mr Lakho said Muneer Mengal was admittedly in the custody of federal authorities and had been promised release if his wife withdrew her petition. Advocate Rizvi requested that his client Syed Mumtaz Hussain’s case be separated from the rest of the petitions as a federal attorney had belatedly informed the court that he was being kept in custody under the Security of Pakistan Act. The attorney should be asked to comply with the court order for production of the material on the basis of which he had been confined. Allowing the request, the bench adjourned the hearing of Mumtaz Hussain’s petition to May 29.

All other petitions were adjourned to May 25 for comments from the authorities. Federal government’s standing counsel Mahmood Alam Rizvi submitted that nearly all the cases were under Supreme Court consideration and the record was held up at the apex court. He sought a longer adjournment for production of the relevant material, if necessary, after the Supreme Court hearing.