KARACHI, Dec 13: A division bench of the Sindh High Court was informed on Thursday that the detained deputy chief of the Jamaat-i-Islami, Liaquat Baluch, was being freed today and the government had decided not to further extend his detention.

The Advocate-General Sindh, Raja Qureshi, while placing the Sindh government’s letter on record, prayed for disposing of the petition accordingly.

The bench comprised Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice Ali Aslam Jaferi.

The counsel for the detainee, Raja Haq Nawaz, contended that the petition should not be disposed of because he had a feeling that his client might be arrested after being set free.

He also opposed the AG’s plea for disposing of the petition on the ground that detention of Mr Baluch was under sub-article (4) of article 10 of the constitution. Under this article, the home secretary had no authority to detain a person.

He insisted that despite the advocate general’s statement the petition should be fixed for Dec 20. The court ordered accordingly.

On Nov 28 the detention of Liaquat Ali Baluch, under the MPO, was extended for another fortnight by the Sindh government which had claimed that his internment was necessary for public safety.

The AG had submitted this when the petition filed by Prof Ghafoor Ahmed, another deputy chief of the Jamaat, challenging the detention of Mr Baluch, had come up before the division bench.

The Sindh government’s detention order of Nov 28 said Mr Baluch was detained for a period of 14 days in exercise of powers vested under sub-Article (4) of article-10 of the constitution from Nov 14 to 28.

“In view of the subversive activities there are sound reasons to believe that if he is allowed to remain free, he would continue to create problems detrimental to law and order.”

The government therefore contended in the order that upon being fully satisfied, and with a view to preventing the detainee, Mr Baluch from acting further in any manner prejudicial to public safety and also in maintenance of public order, his detention was necessary. Hence the Sindh government extended his detention period for 15 days during which period he would remain in Karachi Central Prison from Nov 29 to Dec 13.

It was the case of the petitioner that the impugned order of detention, apart from being without lawful authority, was misuse of authority and jurisdiction, coercive, mala fide, arbitrary, unjust and violative of articles 2-A, 4, 9, 10, 20 & 25 of the constitution.

India blamed: The chief organizer of the Pakistan-Afghanistan Defence Council and deputy chief of the Jamaat-i-Islami, Liquat Baloch, has linked the attack on the Indian parliament in which 13 people were killed with “the old Indian plan to defame” the struggle for the freedom of Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, adds PPI.

He told a press conference here on Thursday after he was released from Karachi Central Jail after a month-long detention. “We believe the incident is a conspiracy hatched by the Indian government in order to defame the freedom struggle of the Kashmiris.

He deplored that the government did not protest when the US ambassador to India declared the Kashmiri freedom movement “terrorism.” He referred to various instances of the involvement of Indian secret agencies in such incidents aimed at giving a bad name to the Kashmiris freedom struggle.

He claimed that the US did not want peace in Afghanistan. He said the government’s Afghan policy had left Pakistan’s long border with Afghanistan “insecure,” and maintained that the presence of American troops in the region was a “threat to Pakistan’s nuclear assets.”