KARACHI, March 27: The Sindh High Court asked a federal attorney on Tuesday to produce the material on the basis of which a detainee has been held under the Security of Pakistan Act.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice Gulzar Ahmed was hearing petitions against unlawful arrest and custody. When Deputy Attorney-General Akhter Ali Mehmud stated that the Supreme Court was also seized of identical matters, the bench told him to submit a list of detainees or missing people whose cases were being heard by the apex court.

Advocate Rasheed A. Razvi said his client, Mumtaz Hussain, was not a ‘missing person’ but a detainee under the Security Act of 1952, the bench repeated its direction to the interior ministry to produce the grounds for detention on the next date, April 17.

The counsel said Hussain was picked up from the Karachi airport on his return from Dubai in July 2006. After denying any knowledge of his whereabouts initially, the ministry finally informed the court that he had been detained under the Security Act.

Advocate Noor Naz Agha said the government and its agencies also expressed their ignorance about custody of her clients, Salim Baloch, Saeed Brohi and Abdul Raoof Sasoli but claimed in the Supreme Court that they had been released. The release implied that they were in custody and the affidavits submitted by the officials earlier were false. The petitions for recovery of other alleged detainees, including Munir A. Mengal, a Dubai-based Baloch Voice television channel, were also adjourned till April 17. — Staff Reporter