PESHAWAR, April 1: The Peshawar High Court on Monday, summoned Charsadda District Nazim for issuing detention orders of 11 persons, under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, to settle his family dispute.

A division bench, comprising Justice Shahjehan Khan Yousafzai and Justice Ijaz Afzal, also summoned the superintendent of police, Charsadda, and directed that both the respondents should appear before the court on April 4.

The bench ordered that five detainees, arrested on the orders of the Nazim, should be released on furnishing two sureties of Rs100,000 each. It also directed that the remaining six persons, against whom the Nazim had issued orders under the MPO and who could not be arrested, should not be arrested till next order.

The court also took up, for preliminary hearing, 11 identical writ petitions filed by a prominent land lord of Charsadda, Muhammad Younas Khan, his two sons, and eight tenants and relatives.

Younas Khan has claimed that he was having a family dispute with his elder brother Muhammad Yaqub popularly known as Chacha Khan, and district Nazim Naseer Khan was son-in-law of the brother, who at the behest of his father-in-law used the MPO in an arbitrary manner.

Younas Khan and his son Ismael have been detained in the central prison, D.I.Khan, whereas three other petitioners are kept in Haripur Prison.

Advocate Mian Fasihul Mulk appeared for the petitioners and contended that the Nazim had no arbitrary powers under the MPO, and he could only exercise his powers when there were valid grounds available.

The dispute started between Chacha Khan and Younas Khan after four daughters of Yonous were married to four sons of Chacha Khan. The petitioner claimed that before marriage, his brother, a land lord and political figure of Charsadda, had transferred 7.7 jerab (30.8 kanal) of land to the four sisters.  

But after marriage Chacha Khan, reportedly, tried to get back the land, which developed a row between the two families, and the four sisters returned to the house of their parents.