KARACHI, July 31: The Sindh High Court on Monday asked the local chief of Military Intelligence to appear on Wednesday and state whether three Jamhoori Watan Party leaders were being detained by his agency in Karachi.

A division bench comprising Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Justice Maqbool Baqar took up three petitions against the arrest and detention of JWP leaders Salim Baloch, Abdul Rauf Sasoli and Saeed Brohi after the docket was transferred from the division bench headed by the chief justice.

Advocate Noor Naz Agha, the petitioners’ counsel, alleged that the three detained persons were in the custody of Military Intelligence and were being kept at the Liaquat Barracks near the accountability court.

The bench inquired from Col Iqbal Soho, the assistant judge advocate-general attending the proceedings, about the name and address of the MI director or its local head so that he could be summoned.

The colonel said he had no knowledge and the bench adjourned the hearing to enable him to make inquiries.

The officer told the bench after the break that he was neither aware of the name of MI director nor had instructions to reveal names of intelligence officers even if he knew.

The bench asked Deputy Attorney-General Akhtar Ali Mahmood to contact the ministry concerned and ensure the appearance of the Karachi head of the agency on August 2.

The defence and interior ministries had earlier submitted that the MI and the Inter-Service Intelligence were not under their operational control.

Eight other petitions alleging wrongful confinement of political activists were adjourned to August 16 with the direction to the provincial police officer to establish contact with various agencies to trace out the alleged detainees.

The detainees include Munir Ahmed Mengal, the chief executive of the Dubai-based satellite channel ‘Baloch Voice’; Bilal Bugti and Mir Murtaza Bugti, nephews of JWP chief Sardar Akbar Khan Bugti; Jiey Sindh activist Asif Baladi and estate agent Brahim Swaleh.

Advocate Agha informed the bench that Mr Swaleh’s case was different from that of other detainees as his whereabouts had been indicated by his cousin Farooq, who was picked up and detained along with him.

According to Farooq, he and Swaleh were kept somewhere near Quetta. He was released in Quetta after about 15 minutes’ drive while Swaleh remained confined.

They were picked up while returning from a Karachi bank after obtaining a bank draft for Rs1.5 million. Their captors wanted to know the source of the amount and Swaleh told them that he got the money from a property purchaser and wanted to give the draft to the prospective seller of another plot.

Advocates S. M. Iqbal, Abdul Hafeez Lakho, Rasheed A. Razvi, G. M. Lakho and Syed Ghulam Shah represented the petitioners. Advocate Malik Mohammad Qayyum, President of the Supreme Court Bar Association, appeared as amicus curiae.