PESHAWAR, April 5: The NWFP advocate-general on Thursday deposed before a bench of the Peshawar High Court that district Nazimeen had no authority to detain a person under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance.

The advocate-general, Barrister Jehanzaib Raheem, appeared before a two-member bench hearing 11 identical habeas corpus petitions, challenging issuance of detention orders of the petitioners under the MPO by the Charsadda district Nazim for settling a family dispute.

The bench comprising Justice Shehzad Akbar and Justice Talat Qayyum Qureshi, inquired from the AG whether the district Nazim was empowered under the MPO to detain a citizen. The AG replied in negative. The district Nazim and Superintendent of Police, Charsadda, also appeared as they were summoned by the bench during last hearing.

Advocate Qazi Mohammad Jamil appeared for the district Nazim and pointed out that before his appointment as AG, Mr Raheem was counsel for the petitioners.

He stated that it did not look appropriate that the AG appeared in this case. He proposed that the AG should assign the case to any of his subordinate additional or deputy advocate generals.

The bench asked the AG to assign the case to any other officer and fixed April 16 for next hearing.

During last hearing the bench had directed that five detainees, arrested on the orders of the Nazim, should be released on furnishing two sureties of Rs100,000 each.

Moreover, the bench directed that the remaining six persons, against whom the Nazim had issued orders for detention under the MPO and who could not be arrested, should not be arrested till next order.

The petitions are filed by a prominent landlord of Charsadda, Mohammad Younus Khan, his two sons, and eight tenants and relatives.

Mr Khan has claimed that he was having a family dispute with his elder brother Mohammad Yaqub alias Chacha Khan, whereas the Nazim, Naseer Khan, was son-in-law of Chacha Khan. He claimed that at the behest of his father-in-law the Nazim used the MPO in an arbitrary manner.