KARACHI, May 26: The Sindh High Court ordered on Saturday the production of an accused remanded in custody while disposing of a petition against his confinement.

Petitioner Muhammad Akbar alleged that his son, Faisal Akbar, was picked up by a law enforcement agency from his Jamshed Road residence on December 7, 2006, and nothing was heard about him since. The petition came up along with other detention matters before a division bench comprising Justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Ali Sain Dino Metlo on Friday. It was again fixed on Saturday at the petitioner’s request.

A CID official appeared on Saturday and informed the bench that Faisal belonged to an outlawed militant organization and the Sindh government had announced a reward for his arrest. He was arrested when he fled to Lahore but the custody was transferred to the Sindh police as he was required in an encounter with a police party in Gulistan-i-Jauhar on February 16, 2007.

He was also an accused in a case registered at Hyderabad. A judicial magistrate remanded him to custody on May 16 and he was lodged in the Central Prison, Karachi. As the bench disposed of the petition as infructuous, the petitioner requested it to order his son’s production as he and members of his family had not seen him for a long time. The bench asked the jail superintendent to produce Faisal on May 29.