KARACHI: Dr Hasan Zafar Arif, a member of the coordination committee of the Altaf Hussain-led Muttahida Qaumi Movement, who has been in prison for over a month, wrote a letter to the Sindh home secretary asking him to withdraw his detention order as it was in violation of the Constitution that guaranteed freedom of expression, it emerged on Monday.

Dr Arif, a retired professor and well-known intellectual, was picked up by the Sindh Rangers outside the Karachi Press Club on Oct 22 when he reached there to hold a press conference in favour of the MQM-London. Later, he was detained under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance at the Karachi Central Prison.

The letter dated Dec 1 was sent to Home Secretary Shakeel Ahmad Mangnejo through the jail superintendent.

Referring to his two detention orders issued on Oct 22 and then on Nov 17, respectively, he stated that those orders caused a serious infringement of his freedom of expression and a violation of the Constitution.

He said that On Oct 22 when he reached the press club to hold a press conference, he was stopped from the exercise of his fundamental constitutional right without any provocation.

The septuagenarian professor stated that the police mentioned in his detention order that “the activities of Dr Hassan Zafar Arif are prejudicial to public peace and order”, hence the detention.

He reminded the home secretary that he was entrusted with the authority to maintain public peace and order, but “one may not legitimately curtail another’s freedom of movement, commit him to Band Ward (a prison inside the prison) and solitary confinement on the general charge”.

He said that for the last 28 years he never participated in any activity that “may be remotely described as political, public or even social”.

He stated that due to his age, health, inclination and training, he intentionally limited himself to expression of his opinions indoors only. “And if there be one amongst us who reckons expression of opinion to be ‘disruptive of public peace’, then he may as well declare our Constitution a subversive document for it guarantees and encourages freedom of expression.”

Referring to the second detention order, he stated that it was also a brazen violation of his freedom of expression.

He slammed the reason DIG-South had cited in his report for extending his detention for 30 more days that Dr Arif was an active member of the MQM-London and if he was released at this point the acrimony between the MQM-Pakistan and MQM-London was likely to increase and cause disruption of public peace.

He questioned that how a person, who had been kept incommunicado for the last one month, was slapped with an additional 30-day detention, whilst “the opposing partisans who participated in the melee and the attendant scuffle, the pushing and the fisticuffs go scot-free and are actively pampered”.

Published in Dawn, December 6th, 2016