January 16, 2008	Wednesday	Muharram 06, 1429

PESHAWAR, Jan 15: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday put off hearing of a writ petition challenging continuous detention of the defunct Tehrik Nifaz-i-Shariah-i-Muhammadi chief Maulana Sufi Mohammad.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Jehanzeb Raheem and Justice Mussadiq Hussain Gillani decided to adjourn the hearing after one of the members expressed his inability to hear the case.

Justice Jehanzeb Raheem observed that during his tenure as advocate general he had once appeared in a case of Sufi Mohammad and opposed his release. He observed that due to same reason it would not be appropriate for him to hear the case.

The petition was filed last year by Fazlullah Khan, son of Maulana Sufi Mohammad, stating that the detainee had already completed his prison term of ten years and the government had now been keeping him in illegal detention in Dera Ismail Khan central prison. The petitioner stated that the continuous detention of Maulana Sufi Mohammad was unconstitutional.

Due to boycott of the lawyers the petitioner’s counsel Abdul Lateef Afridi did not appear before the bench.

Maulana Sufi Mohammad and his 30 supporters were arrested in Kurram Agency on Nov 20, 2001, when they were returning from Afghanistan. They had gone to fight alongside Taliban against the foreign forces in Afghanistan.

They had been convicted by Kurram Agency assistant political agent on March 30, 2002, for carrying explosive substances and lethal weapons, displaying heavy weaponry and entering into Pakistan from Afghanistan illegally.

The sentence awarded to Maulana Sufi on different counts amounted to ten years imprisonment. The trial court had ordered that the three sentences should run consecutively.

The appeals of the convicts were decided by the Commissioner FCR, who upheld the sentences but directed that the sentences should be concurrent and not consecutive.

The petitioner claimed that the district coordination officer of Lower Dir had sent a letter to the provincial home department stating that there were 12 FIRs registered against the detainee in different police stations, therefore, he should not be released.

The superintendent of D.I. Khan prison, Khalid Abbass, told the bench that the detainee was wanted by police in various cases registered at Swat and Lower Dir districts.

The bench asked him whether the detainee was produced before any court in connection with those cases. The superintendent replied in negative.

The detainee has presently been undergoing treatment here at Hayatabad Medical Complex where was shifted from the prison about three months ago.