July 23, 2007	Monday	Rajab 07, 1428

QUETTA, July 22: Jamhoori Watan Party Chief Nawabzada Talal Akbar Bugti has appealed to Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry to take a suo motu notice of “hundreds of missing political workers” in Balochistan who, he claimed, were arrested by intelligence agencies in violation of the law of the land.

In a statement issued here on Sunday he, while appreciating the historic verdict of the Supreme Court reinstating the chief justice, said the reinstatement of Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry by the Supreme Court was a matter of relief for all detainees who had allegedly been kept in secret cells by intelligence agencies, adding that these detained people were hoping to get justice from the Supreme Court.

He asserted that hundreds of political activists of different political parties had been arrested by police and intelligence agencies in the past four years without fulfilling legal procedures.

He demanded of the government either to release all these detained people or produce them before the court of law.

He appealed to Chief Justice to take a suo motu notice of what he called illegal actions of security forces which had arrested political opponents of the government in Balochistan and other provinces, and ensure protection of fundamental rights of the people guaranteed by Constitution.