QUETTA: The Balochi­stan High Court on Monday reserved its judgement on a constitutional petition of MPA-elect of Hazara Democratic Party (HDP) Ahmed Ali Kohzad, who had challenged the National Database and Registration Authority’s (Nadra) act of blocking his computerised national identity card.

A BHC division bench comprising Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan and Justice Abdullah Baloch was hearing a case questioning the MPA-elect’s Pakistani nationality.

At the last hearing, an inquiry report submitted by the deputy commissioner of Quetta had said that the HDP leader was an Afghan refugee.

Mr Kohzad, the secretary general of the HDP, has been elected to the Balochistan Assembly in the July 25 polls.

The petitioner’s lawyer Humayun Tareen pleaded before the court that Nadra had not issued any show-cause notice to his client before blocking his CNIC. Upon being inquired about Mr Kohzad’s birth certificate, Advocate Tareen informed the bench that his birth certificate was made on June 29, 2004.

He argued that his client had served as town Nazim and contested the 2013 general election as well.

Justice Akhtar Afghan said that the court would look into the nature of the interim order of the case.

Nadra’s law officer Khalilul Zaman Alizai informed the bench that the case of blocking Mr Kohzad’s CNIC was pending with the interior ministry.

After hearing final arguments from both sides, the bench reserved the judgement.

Earlier, an arrest warrant was granted by a local court to the Crime Investigation Agency for Mr Kohzad over his alleged involvement in the murder of Muhammad Hafeez, a goldsmith whose body was found in Marriabad a few years ago.

However, the MPA-elect has not been arrested so far.

Published in Dawn, August 07th, 2018