RAWALPINDI, Feb 23: The Lahore High Court, Rawalpindi Bench, dismissed on Monday the habeas corpus petitions challenging the detention of six KRL officials and scientists.

A division bench of the LHC, Rawalpindi bench, comprising Justice Maulvi Anwarul Haq and Justice Mansoor Ahmad, had reserved the judgment on Thursday. On Monday, the bench announced its short order, but the copies of the judgment were not made available to anyone.

The relatives of six KRL officials had approached the court to declare their detention as illegal, and set them at liberty. The government had taken the position that the officials were detained under the Security of Pakistan Act 1952 as they had been engaged in nuclear proliferation and were responsible for, inter alia, directly and indirectly passing on to foreign countries and individuals secret codes, nuclear materials, substances, machinery, equipment components, information, documents, sketches, plans, models, articles and notes entrusted to them in their official capacity.

The government said it was satisfied that the detention of the six persons was necessary with a view to preventing them from carrying on such activities in a manner prejudicial to the security of Pakistan. The government said presently it was not in the national interest to disclose anything more than what had been stated.

The relatives of Dr Mohammad Farooq, director KRL; Dr Nazeer Ahmad, chief engineer metallurgy department KRL; Brig (retired) Sajawal Khan Malik, retired director-general KRL; Dr Naseemuddin, currently head of Missile Manufacturing KRL, Kahuta; Brig (retired) Mohammad Iqbal Tajwar, former director-general Security KRL, Kahuta, and Maj (retired) Islamul Haq, principal staff officer of Dr A.Q. Khan, had approached the court for their release.

Advocate Ikram Chaudhry, who represented Mohammad Farooq, and Maj (retired) Islamul Haq, said he would challenge the LHC decision before the Supreme Court. He said the issue was of fundamental rights and he would challenge it before the Supreme Court, which, under the Constitution, was the guardian of citizen's fundamental rights.

Barrister Tariq Khokhar, who had represented three detenus, Brig (retired) Sajawal Khan, Brig (retired) Iqbal Tajwar and Dr Naseemuddin, said he had received instructions from his clients that the LHC order should be challenged before the Supreme Court.