KARACHI, March 1: A division bench of the Sindh High Court issued a notice to the Inter-Services Intelligence in a habeas corpus petition and asked the attorney-general to ascertain the whereabouts of more detainees and appear on March 13.

Petitioner Ghulam Baladi alleged that his brother, Asif Baladi of the Jeay Sindh Tehrik, was picked up from his Gulistan-i-Jauhar residence in June 2006 and a person claiming to be a messenger of a brigadier posted in ISI came to collect his passport and identity card. The petitioner also mentioned the number of the car in which Baladi was taken away.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice Faisal Arab expressed its disappointment over the incidents of such ‘disappearance’, which threatened the entire legal system. “A solution has to be found,” it said, and asked lawyers to thrash the issue in order to safeguard the legal framework. One of the petitioners’ counsels suggested that police stations should be obliged to record every ‘disappearance’ in their daily register or ‘roznamcha’.

Federal government’s standing counsel Mahmood Alam Rizvi produced a detention order in respect of Engineer Mumtaz Hussain, who has been detained in Islamabad under the Security of Pakistan Act. His petitioner wife Zohra Masooma’s counsel said the federal attorney was asked to submit a copy of the material on the basis of which the engineer was detained. The bench ordered production of the material on March 13.

In Shumaila Hasan’s petition for recovery of her husband, Mohammad Shafqat, an affidavit on behalf of Federal Interior Secretary Syed Kamal Shah said the detainee was not in the custody of the Federal Investigation Agency or the Islamabad Police, the two agencies under the administrative control of the ministry. The petitioner has alleged that Shafqat is being held by the Inter-Services Intelligence.

In a petition moved by Faiza Ali Haider, daughter of the slain son of the late Nawab Akbar Bugti, for release of her husband, Ali Haider Bugti, the bench asked the counsel to furnish a copy of the petition to federal and provincial attorneys for comments. The petition alleges that the detainee’s agricultural land and standing crops in Sanghar have also been occupied by the police and Rangers. It gives a long list of the detainee’s assets, including buffaloes, generators, ceiling fans, which have been seized by the two agencies. She said there was a serious threat to the safety and security of her husband.

Hearing of petitions for production of other detainees, including Jamhoori Watan Party’s Salim Baloch, Abdul Wahab Baloch and Muneer Mengal, were also adjourned to March 13. Advocates Rasheed A. Razvi, Abdul Hafeez Lakho, Nehal Hashmi, Sohail Hameed, Ghulam Mustafa Lakho, Haider Imam Rizvi and Mubin Lakho were among the lawyers who represented the petitioners.