KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday struck down a preventive detention order issued by the provincial authorities to keep four men behind bars after conviction order of the trial court was set aside in the abduction and murder case of US journalist Daniel Pearl around eight months ago.

The two-judge SHC bench headed by Justice K.K. Agha observed that the detention order was issued without lawful authority and in violation of several provisions of the Constitution.

It directed the jail authorities to release them immediately if not wanted in any other custody case or any order against their release passed by the Supreme Court.

The bench also barred the federal and provincial authorities from placing the petitioners under any preventive detention order without prior permission of the SHC.

However, it directed the federal authorities to put the petitioners on no-fly list until the appeals have been decided by the apex court.

Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, Fahad Naseem, Salman Saqib and Sheikh Adil, through their counsel, moved the SHC after they were placed under detention in April shortly after the court ordered their release after setting aside a conviction order of the trial court.

The bench through a short order struck down the preventive detention order as well as another notification for placing the petitioners in fourth schedule under the anti-terrorism law for reasons to be recorded later.

It observed that none of the petitioners was found to be ‘enemy aliens’ as contemplated under Article 10(9) of the Constitution.

It further said that the bench had asked Advocate General Salman Talibuddin to submit his arguments, but he had contended that this bench should not hear this petition since it had already made up its mind in the present case after passing an order a few days ago on an identical petition about the release of a man acquitted in the PIDC car bombing case.

The bench said that it did not find any merit in the submission of the advocate general and rejected the same. It observed that no useful purpose would be served by transferring the petition to another bench.

“In our view the proper approach would have been for advocate general to have challenged our earlier order before the Supreme Court,” it said.

In April the high court had acquitted all the appellants of the charges of murder and kidnapping for ransom and only found main accused Ahmed Omar Sheikh guilty of abducting the slain journalist and sentenced him to seven-year imprisonment. However, the sentence had been completed as the convict had already spent around 18 years in detention.

The Supreme Court is hearing the appeals of provincial government and the parents of the slain journalist against the SHC’s order.

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2020