KARACHI, Jan 5: The Sindh High Court on Thursday called comments from the interior secretary and Sindh home secretary within 15 days on a writ petition in which the arrest and detention of Afghan refugees was questioned under the Foreigners Act 1946.

Petitioner Nisar Magsi submitted that the police and other government law- enforcement agencies have adopted a practice of harassing and detaining Afghan refugees under Foreigners Act although they fell out of the scope and applicability of this act in view of the tripartite agreement and all subsequent notifications.

His counsel Ms Tayaba Mehar submitted copies of about a dozen FIRs registered under Section 13 and 14 of the Foreigners Act against 326 refugees during October-December 2005 by FIA Passport Cell, Karachi from Saddar, Hub Chowki and other placed in Karachi.

She said actual number of such people could be far more than the list because her organization ALAC was still in the process of collecting their data.

It has been submitted in the petition that a tripartite agreement was reached by the government of Pakistan, the then transitional government of Afghanistan and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees under which Pakistan had guaranteed safety of Afghan citizens on Pakistan soil.

Thereafter, a notification (No F12(8)-AR.1/96) was issued by the federal ministry of Kashmir Affairs, Northern Areas and Frontier Region on July 23 1997, under which Afghan refugees were legally allowed to earn their livelihood outside refugees camps in Pakistan to support themselves as well as their families.

Movement and presence of these refugees outside their camps had been declared legitimate hence placed outside the scope of Foreigners Act until their voluntary repatriation is completed.

She prayed the court to direct the respondents to produce the record of detained Afghan refugees and declare their arrest and detention illegal.

SHC’s division bench, comprising Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Justice Nadeem Azhar Siddiqui, after perusing the list issued notices to the respondents and called their comments on the petition within 15 days and adjourned the hearing till Jan 25.

deputation case: Notice was issued to Interior Secretary, DIGP Establishment and 15 other police officers for Jan 17 by a division bench of High Court of Sindh in a constitutional petition filed by Inspector Mohammad Ahmed Baig whose name was dropped from list of officers to serve in UN Peace mission in Kosovo.

Appearing before the bench, comprising Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Justice Nadeem Azhar Siddiqui, Shaukat Hayat advocate, counsel for the petitioner, submitted that the petitioner was selected twice for UN peace mission in Ivory Coast and then Kosovo, but due to delay and inefficiency of the interior ministry could not proceed and the opportunity was lost.

He again qualified another UN test for deputation to Kosovo and his name was placed at serial number 106 of the merit list, but to utter surprise, his name was deleted from the list while names of other respondents whose names appeared much below his merit rating are being sent abroad.—PPI/APP