RAWALPINDI, July 15: The government on Thursday refused to present any specific charges against six detained army officers or their arrest orders in the Lahore High Court, Rawalpindi bench , saying it was doing so due to the sensitivity of the matter.

The head of the judge advocate-general (JAG) branch, Brigadier Ayub, told the division bench, comprising Justice Akhtar Shabbir and Justice Tanveer Bashir Ansari, that an investigation against the six army officers was in final stages.

The probe, he said, was being carried out by a secret agency. He refused to share with the court the nature of the charges for which the officers were being investigated or produce the arrest orders.

The court had directed the deputy advocate-general, Chaudhry Mohammad Tariq, during the last hearing, to help the families of the army officers to meet them. The defence counsel, Mohammad Ikram Chaudhry, Taufeeq Asif, Hasnain Chauhan and Maqsood Hussain, requested the court to ask the JAG why were the families not being allowed to see the officers.

Brig Ayub said the meeting between the families and officers could not be arranged due to the sensitive nature of the case. Reiterating the government's initial stand, he said the army officers had been detained under Section 2-d of the Army Act, 1952, and hence the court had no jurisdiction over the case.

When the court asked how long the officers had been in detention, Brig Ayub replied that the period ranged between one and one and a half years. However, Ikram Chaudhry said that the JAG itself was violating not only the Constitution, but also the Army Act, as it had detained six officers without even bringing on record the charges against the officers.

He termed the JAG's move a deliberate concealment of basic facts. He challenged the investigation by a secret agency, contending that the agency had taken such a long time in the investigation.

Separate petitions have been filed by the families of the officers, Lt-Col Abdul Ghafar Khan, Col Khalid Abbas, Maj Attaullah Khan, Maj Rohail Faraz, Capt Usman Zafar, and Maj Adil Qadoos Khan.

ATTACK ON MUSHARRAF: The JAG's head also presented the government's point of view in the case of Ghulam Sarwar Bhatti, who has been in custody for seven months in connection with an attempt on the life of President Gen Pervez Musharraf near Jhanda Chichi in Rawalpindi.