ISLAMABAD, Feb 25: The Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court has directed the government to allow fortnightly meetings between detained officials of Khan Research Laboratories and their family members , who are being held under the Security of Pakistan Act for allegedly "directly and indirectly" passing on nuclear programme secrets.

The LHC division bench which had dismissed their habeas corpus petitions on Monday, released its detailed reasoning on Wednesday. The court said it came to the conclusion that the government was justified in detaining the six officials, but the rights available under the law should be made available to those detained.

The court said that it had been assured that the detainees were properly fed, and that the requisite reading material would also be provided to them. The court held that close family member - parents, wives, sons and daughters - should be allowed meetings every fortnightly, for a reasonable period.

The court, in the concluding part, reminded the government that the detainees were still accused and they should be treated like accused and not like convicts.

It quoted an extract from Indian Supreme Court judgment, which says: It must be emphasised that a detainee is not a convict. It is implicit in the constitutional scheme that the power to detain is not a power to punish for offences which an executive authority in his subjective satisfaction believes a citizen to have committed.

Power to detain is primarily intended to be exercised in those rare cases when the larger interest of the State demand that restriction shall be placed on the liberty of a citizen curbing his future activities. The restriction so placed must consistently with the effectiveness of detention, be minimal."