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LAHORE, Aug 20: The Lahore High Court has ordered the release of 12 brick kiln workers, who have been illegally confined to a cell at a kiln in Mandi Bahauddin for about one year.
The court issued the order after a bailiff produced the workers and reported they were being kept in illegal confinement at a kiln. The court also directed them to approach police to initiate criminal proceedings against kiln owner Zulfiqar Husain. The owner, however, submitted in court that they were not kept in confinement on his premises.
The order to set labourers at liberty was issued in response to a habeas corpus petition which stated that the kiln owner had imprisoned Gul Husain, Shabbir, Sagheer, Umar Hayat, Zubaida Bibi and seven others when they demanded wages for their work about one year ago.
According to the petition, some 12 labourers entered into a contract with Zulfiqar on brick making and baking rates about two years ago. For one year, the management paid the wages, though did not satisfy the provisions of the contract. Later, the payment was stopped altogether and the labourers were imprisoned in a cell about 12 months ago.
LANDLORD: The LHC on Friday expressed dissatisfaction over the police's plea for detaining a person without legal authority and directed that he should be produced on Aug 24.
Manga Mandi and Mohlanwal police, which produced the record of the confinement of Pattoki landlord Mohammad Irfan, submitted that he was not being detained by them.
The police made this submission during the proceedings of a habeas corpus petition in which petitioner Mohammad Arif, the brother of the detainee, has charged the Manga Mandi police with keeping Irfan in unlawful custody.
As for impounding of his jeep, the police submitted that Irfan and others in the jeep misbehaved with a police party which stopped the vehicle on suspicion. The court observed that the police's plea of misbehaviour did not satisfy the law and was not a sufficient ground for impounding the vehicle.
Advocate M D Tahir, the counsel for petitioner, alleged that the person was with police who were concealing truth and misleading the court. The court directed the Manga SHO, the Mohlanwal check post in-charge and investigation officer Rana Asghar Ali to give a definite answer to the question of illegal custody of the landlord.
