KARACHI: The administrative judge of the antiterrorism courts on Saturday directed the provincial authorities to constitute a joint investigation team to grill banned People Amn Committee chief Uzair Jan Baloch after it was informed about his three-month preventive detention by Rangers.

Rangers personnel along with their legal team produced Uzair Baloch — an absconder in around 45 cases pending before the ATCs — in the chamber of the administrative judge, Justice Syed Mohammad Farooq Shah of Sindh High Court, amid strict security.

The Rangers submitted an application along with a jail warrant and detention order in court stating that in exercise of powers conferred by the federal and provincial governments, they arrested Uzair Ali alias Sardar Uzair Jan Baloch within the jurisdiction of the Chakiwara police station and detained him upon receiving credible information about his involvement in extortion, targeted killing and kidnapping punishable under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.

According to official documents submitted in court, the sector commander, Abdullah Shah Ghazi Rangers, has placed the suspect under preventive detention for three months under Section 11-EEEE (1) of the ATA for the purpose of inquiry.

The detention order said that it was in the public interest that an inquiry be conducted against the detainee and during the questioning he will be kept at the Mitha Ram Hostel, which has been notified as a sub-jail.

In compliance with Section 11-EEEE (3) of the ATA, the detainee was produced along with relevant documents for the information of the court, the Rangers added.

The paramilitary force also submitted in court a Sindh government notification of 2012 in which it announced a bounty on most wanted criminals of Lyari, including Uzair Baloch.

Advocate Khawaja Naveed Ahmed, who is heading a panel of lawyers for the suspect, was also present during the brief proceedings conducted in the chamber of the administrative judge.

The judge took the Rangers’ documents on record and directed the home secretary to constitute a JIT within 15 days to interrogate the detainee.

According to Section 11-EEEE (1) (preventive detention for inquiry), added to the ATA in October 2013, “the government or, where the provisions of Section 4 have been invoked, the armed forces or civil armed forces, as the case may be, subject to the specific or general order of the government in this regard, for period not exceeding three months and after recording reasons thereof, issue order for the preventive detention of any person who has been concerned in any offence under this act relating to the security or defence of Pakistan or any part thereof, or public order relating to target killing, kidnapping for ransom, and extortion / bhatta, or the maintenance of supplies or services, or against whom a reasonable complaint has been made or credible information has been received, or a reasonable suspicion exists of his having been so concerned, for purpose of inquiry.”

Many ATCs have already declared Uzair Baloch an absconder in around 45 cases. Around 35 such cases pertaining to murder, attempted murder, illicit weapons and explosive substances were registered during a police operation conducted in Lyari in 2012 after he along with his accomplices allegedly put up resistance and attacked the police on several occasions.

He has been declared a proclaimed offender in the March 2013 murder case of rival gangster Arshad Pappu, his brother Yasir Arafat and their confidant Juma Shera.

Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2016