KARACHI, June 5: The Sindh High Court directed the federal, provincial and military intelligence authorities on Monday to employ all their resources to trace an allegedly detained Jamhoori Watan Party leader and produce him on June 20.

A division bench, comprising Justices Ghulam Rabbani and Gulzar Ahmed, had asked the interior and defence ministries to ascertain the whereabouts of Salim Baloch, vice-president of the JWP, alleged by his petitioner-brother Abdullah Baloch to have been picked up by uniformed and plainclothes policemen from a newspaper stall at Kalakot on March 10. A statement on behalf of the interior ministry said on Monday that the alleged detainee was not in the custody of either of the Federal Investigation Agency or of the Islamabad police.

Advocate Noor Naz Agha, the petitioner’s counsel, told the vacation bench, comprising Justices M. Mujibullah Siddiqui and Syed Zawwar Hussain Jaffery, that neither the FIA nor the Islamabad police had been cited as a respondents. The detainee was suspected to be in the custody of the Federal Investigation Unit (FIU) or military intelligence.

The bench took a serious view of the ‘stereotyped’ statement submitted by the interior ministry and the federal government standing counsel, Mahmood Alam Rizvi. It said such general denials were not sufficient in cases where liberty and security of citizens were at stake. It said the bar contained in Article 199 (3) was not applicable when the military dealt with civillian affairs.

The inspector-general of police, the FIU, the military intelligence, the ministries of interior and defence and the provincial home department were asked to ascertain the detainee’s whereabouts, recover him and produce him on June 20. The government is responsible to find out a person who has gone missing.

BILLBOARD REMOVAL: Justice Nadeem Azhar Siddiqui, meanwhile, summoned district officer Hasan Naqvi and deputy district officer Mohammad Taqi of the city district government on June 7 in a contempt application moved by Sajjad Haider of Vision Publicity.

The court had asked the city district government not to remove the publicity hoarding put up by the applicant on NIPA Chaowrangi. In violation of the court order, according to the applicant, the CDGK officials dismantled the hoarding.

IMTIAZ’S PLEA: The vacation division bench, meanwhile, adjourned the hearing of former minister Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh’s plea for transfer of kidnapping case against him from the anti-terrorism court of Judge Haq Nawaz Baloch. Additional Advocate-General Abbas Ali appeared on a court notice and sought time to prepare his brief. The bench adjourned the hearing to June 23 and extended the interim order against pronouncement of the final verdict in the case till that date.