PESHAWAR, Jan 19: The Peshawar High Court ordered on Wednesday to club together two writ petitions challenging the detention of three Al Qaeda suspects by intelligence agencies.

A two-member bench, comprising PHC Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk and Justice Jehanzeb Raheem, directed the office concerned to fix for hearing the petitions filed by Fatima and Haji Enayat during the first week of February.

The two petitions were fixed before two different benches on Wednesday. The petition filed by Ms Fatima was fixed for the bench headed by the PHC chief justice, and the second petition for the bench comprising Justice Qaim Jan Khan and Justice Dost Mohammad Khan.

Haji Enayat has challenged the detention of his two sons, Abdul Basit and Abdul Aziz, whereas Ms Fatima has challenged the detention of her son, Liaqat Ali. The provincial government has already filed comments in reply to the two petitions and has expressed ignorance about their detention.

The federal government has yet to file any comments. Deputy Attorney-General Salahuddin Khan appeared and requested the court to allow him more time as the agencies concerned had not conveyed anything to him about matters raised in Ms Fatima's petition.