KARACHI, Dec 29: The Sindh High Court allowed the wife of a detained Dubai-based channel executive on Friday to withdraw the petition against her husband’s arrest and detention but decided ‘to keep the issue alive’ to ensure that he was released as promised by his captors.

Muneer Ahmed Mengal, chief executive of the ‘Baloch Voice,’ a television channel based at Dubai, was arrested on his arrival at Karachi airport on April 4. He was cleared by immigration officials but whisked away by unidentified agency personnel as he came out of the airport lounge with his wife, Abeera Muneer. Nothing was known about him since and Abeera filed a habeas corpus petition for his recovery. Various agencies denied having arrested or detained him.

As the petition came up before a division bench comprising Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Amir Hani Muslim on Friday, the petitioner and Muneer’s mother stated that ‘some agency personnel’ arranged a meeting between them and detained Muneer Ahmed Mengal at the airport on Thursday evening. The personnel assured them that he was ‘in the hands of friends’ and that he would be released if and when they withdrew the petition against his detention. The petitioner requested the bench to allow her to withdraw her petition.

The petitioner’s counsel, Abdul Hafeez Lakho, said he was bound by his client’s instructions but would draw the court’s attention to the implications of the statement. When the petitioner insisted on withdrawal, the bench granted her request but said the matter would be ‘kept alive’. Several identical petitions were adjourned to January 16 with a direction to Deputy Attorney-General Akhter Ali Mahmud to submit the record of the efforts made by the prime minister’s secretariat for tracing the whereabouts of ‘missing people’. The DAG said he was already in touch with the PM’s secretariat as directed but required time as the secretariat was awaiting reports by some of the agencies concerned.

The Supreme Court, he said, has called for a report on ‘disappearance’ of a number of people in exercise of its suo motu powers and the matter was fixed for hearing on January 8. The freed Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP) acting president Salim Baloch’s affidavit recounting his travails in custody would also be sent to the secretariat for ascertaining who mistreated him and kept him in confinement for nine months, the law officer said.

Lt-Col Imran Yaqub, director (operations) of the interior ministry’s crisis management cell, appeared in response to a court notice and submitted that military intelligence agencies were not under the ministry’s control. So far as the Federal Investigation Agency, the Islamabad Police and the Rangers, which worked under the ministry’s overall supervision, were concerned, no detainee was being held in custody by them. In fact, it was for the provincial police to ascertain the whereabouts of ‘missing persons’. However, the ministry has traced 24 ‘missing’ people while the whereabouts of 17 were being ascertained as ordered by the Supreme Court.

Additional Advocate-General M. Ahmed Pirzada submitted on behalf of the Sindh government that no ‘missing’ person has been arrested or detained by any provincial agency, including police.

Advocate Rasheed A. Razvi wondered how could the interior and defence ministries claim that the intelligence agencies were not under their operational or administrative control. According to Article 243 of the Constitution, the federal government has the control and command of the armed forces, including their agencies, he said.

Advocate Noor Naz Agha informed the bench that though her clients, Salim Baloch, Abdur Rauf Sasoli and Saeed Brohi of the JWP, have been released and have returned home, their names have been included in the exit control list and they reserved the right to challenge the interior ministry’s decision.

Other detained persons whose cases have been adjourned to January 16 are Affan Leghari, a student missing since October 30, 2004; religious scholar Ali Mohammad missing since May 5, 2005; Mohammad Arif Kasmani, a businessman missing since November 29, 2005; ‘pesh imam’ (prayer leader) Mohammad Alam Tariq missing since December 17, 2005; former navy officer Mumtaz Hasan missing since December 3, 2006; Quetta chief of the Baloch National Movement Ghulam Nabi Baloch missing since July 3, 2006; and Sindh JWP president Sher Mohammad Baloch missing since July 4, 2006.

A contempt case filed against an FIA deputy director for submitting a false affidavit in respect of the arrival of freed detainee Dr Ali Raza in Karachi from Dubai, was, meanwhile, adjourned to January 10 by another division bench comprising Justice Rehmat Husain Jafri and Justice Munib Ahmed Khan. DAG A. M. Mahmud informed the bench that a report was awaited from Pakistan’s consul-general in the Emirate. The applicant says that FIA official’s affidavit was contradicted by no less an authority than the office of the President, which said an inquiry conducted by it in response to a representation made by Dr Raza’s wife showed that he arrived at Karachi airport on June 19.