October 24, 2008	Friday	Shawwal 24, 1429

KARACHI, Oct 23: The Sindh High Court issued notices to the provincial home department and other respondents on Thursday in a petition moved by the son of former revenue minister Altaf Hussaun Unnar for a meeting with his ailing father, who is allegedly being kept in a solitary cell as an under-trial prisoner at the Hyderabad central prison without being provided medical treatment or home-cooked food required by him.

Petitioner Adil Altaf Unnar alleged that the ex-minister was unlawfully arrested from his village Aliabad, Larkana district, on the morning of April 15 and shown to have been arrested in a second FIR of a February 2007 incident, an official FIR in respect of which was already under investigation by the Bhudapur police station, Larkana district.

He was alleged to have fired at the car of MNA Dr Azra Pechoho during balloting in a by-poll. He was remanded first in police custody and then in judicial custody by a judicial magistrate, who referred his application for an appropriate class in prison to the jail superintendent. The case had been challaned before an anti-terrorism court, which rejected his plea.

The petitioner also alleged that his father, who is a cardiac, diabetic and kidney patient, was being detained at a ‘band’ ward and when he (the petitioner) went to meet him, he was not only refused permission but was also maltreated by the jail staff. The ex-minister was being also denied medication and home-cooked food.

He said his father, who belonged to the opposition PML-Q, was being victimised by the ruling PPP and expressed the apprehension that he might by ‘killed by slow poisoning like his elder brother Ghulam Hussain Unnar’.

Besides meetings with his father, the petitioner prayed to the court to order the home department and prisons departments to allow his father a better class and all other facilities, particularly medical treatment and home-cooked food, he was entitled to under the law and the prison rules.

He should be admitted to hospital as the serious diseases he suffered from could not be treated by the jail doctor.

He said the petitioner had been guaranteed the right to be treated in accordance with the law and equal protection of law by the Constitution and all government functionaries were required to obey the basic law.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Justice Khwaja Naveed Ahmed issued notices to the home secretary, the inspector-general of prisons and the superintendent of the Hyderabad jail for Oct 28.

‘Baloch Park’

The Supreme Court asked the city district government on Thursday to remove all encroachments from the ‘Baloch Park’ and develop it as a public park.

The park, situated in a congested area in front of Jama Cloth Market off MA Jinnah Road, had been occupied by workshops and other businesses over the years. A 500-square-yard plot lying vacant in it was recently developed by the city district government as ‘Information Technology Park’ with funds provided by the federal government.

A petitioner challenged the setting up of the ‘IT Park’ but the petition was dismissed by a division bench of the Sindh High Court.

The petitioner went in appeal to the Supreme Court, saying that the CDGK had no authority to set up the IT Park. A bench consisting of Justices Syed Zawwar Hussain Jaffery and Mian Hamid Farooq refused leave to appeal after hearing Advocate Manzoor Ahmed for the respondent government and Advocate Anwar Tariq for the petitioner.

Reinstatement ordered

A Sindh High Court division bench, meanwhile, heard a petition filed by Sohail Khan and 23 other lower grade employees of the police department. The petitioner submitted that they were recruited for senior superintendent Sikandar Magsi as chowkidar, patedar, gardener, etc in July 2007. They were dismissed in July 2008 without being assigned reason. Allowing the petition, the bench ordered the petitioners’ reinstatement with retrospective effect from July.

Illegal detention

The bench issued notices in a petition alleging unlawful arrest and detention of Jahangir Khan, a resident of a South Waziristan village, working as a cleaner-excavator at Umarkot, Mirpurkhas.

Petitioner Yusuf Khan alleged through Advocate Saeedur Rehman Mahsood that his brother, Jahangir Khan, was picked up by police and rangers’ personnel on January 17, 2008. He was still being held in custody without being produced before a magistrate. Citing the federal interior secretary and provincial home secretary as respondents, the petitioner requested the court to order his brother’s production.