PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Wednesday gave the defence ministry three days to file written comments on a petition of imprisoned Indian national Hamid Nehal Ansari, who sought remission in his three-year prison term awarded to him by a military court in Dec 2015.

Chief Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Mohammad Ghazanfar Khan fixed Jan 31 for the next hearing into the petition asking deputy attorney general Mussaratullah Khan to submit the comments by then.

The petitioner, currently kept in Mardan district prison, has challenged the mentioning of the words ‘anti-state activities’ on his jail warrants, insisting that neither he was involved in any anti-state activities nor was he convicted by the military court for that offence.

DAG insists Ansari not entitled to relief due to anti-Pakistan activities

He prayed the court that an appropriate order be issued to the defence secretary to amend the jail warrant and substitute the word ‘anti-state activities’ with ‘illegal activities’.

The petitioner also prayed the court to direct the authorities of Mardan prison to allow ‘due’ remission to him with effect from Dec 15, 2015, when he was convicted, and work out his date of release thereafter. DAG Mussaratullah Khan said as the petitioner was involved in anti-state activities, he was not entitled to remission in his prison term.

Qazi Mohammad Anwar, lawyer for the petitioner, said his client, who was taken into custody in 2012, was neither an Indian agent nor was he connected with any anti-Pakistan group.

He added that his client had committed a mistake by crossing the border into Pakistan without valid documents and that he had a fake identity card. The lawyer said at the most, the petitioner could be convicted under the Passport Act or for the offence of preparing forged documents.

The bench asked if the petitioner’s prison term should not start from the day he was arrested. Qazi Anwar insisted that even if the period of his client’s detention prior to conviction had not been counted in the prison term, he was entitled to remission and that if that was considered, he had already completed his prison term.

He said the petitioner had gone missing after he was taken into custody by intelligence agencies and local police in Kohat district in Nov 2012 and that the high court was informed on Jan 13, 2016, that he was in the custody of the Pakistan Army and was being tried by a military court.

The lawyer said in Feb 2016, it surfaced that the petitioner was convicted by a military court and was sentenced to three years imprisonment and was shifted to the Peshawar central prison and that he was later moved to Mardan district prison.

The petitioner, a 31-year-old MBA degree holder, was a teacher at the Mumbai Management College. He had left India for Afghanistan on Nov 4, 2012 on a valid tourist visa. He had later left Jalalabad for Peshawar on Nov 12, 2012 and entered Pakistan with a fake identity card sent to him by his Facebook friends from Karak with whom he stayed in their town for two days. He was taken into custody from a Kohat hotel on Nov 14, 2012.

Published in Dawn, January 25th, 2018