PESHAWAR, May 27: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday summoned the officials concerned of the ministries of defence and interior in two identical habeas corpus petitions challenging the alleged detention of four cousins by the Pakistan army for the last 75 days.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Tariq Pervez and Justice Ijaz Afzal fixed June 10 for the next hearing. The bench took exception of not filing of comments by the ministries in reply to the two petitions.

The bench observed that the petitions were of importance as it pertained to liberty of four persons, but the respondents had not been taking the issue seriously. The deputy attorney-general Hamid Farooq Durrani informed the court that the respondents had sought more time for submitting the comments.

The bench observed that enough time had been given to the respondents for filing of the comments. The court directed the DAG to ask the officials concerned of the two ministries to appear in person on the next hearing and clarify the situation.

The four detainees - Sohail Rehman, Mohammad Farooq, Kashif Jamal and Muhammad Asif - were allegedly picked up from their residences in D. I. Khan by some army officials on March 11 and since then their whereabouts are not known.

The DAG had informed the court during the last hearing that the ministry of interior had expressed ignorance about their detention. He had also informed that the ministry of defence had claimed that it had not received any reply from the General Headquarters.

Advocate Abdul Lateef Afridi, who appeared for the petitioner, contended that strange things were going on in this country as people were picked up by these agencies and their whereabouts were not disclosed. He added that even animals had their rights, but these living human beings had no rights.

Mr Afridi questioned whether these respondents were above the law and they were not answerable to any court. The NWFP government and police have already expressed ignorance about the detention of the four detainees.