KARACHI, June 6: An anti-terrorism court ordered on Thursday the Sindh home secretary to appear in the court on June 14 in connection with his application seeking withdrawal of the bailable warrants for his arrest.

Judge Abdul Ghafoor Memon of the ATC-2 had issued bailable warrants for the arrest of Brig Mukhtar Ahmed (retd) under section 27 of the Anti-terrorism Act as he did not appear in the court despite repeated notices.

The judge had called the home secretary in connection with the notification of the trial of a double-murder case against two workers of the Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) on the premises of the Central Prison, Karachi.

The case against Dilawar Hussain alias Dildar, Shahzad Maqsood, Abdul Wasim and Mohammed Saeed Awan alias Saeed Kalia pertained to the murder of a muazzin and a watchman of Askari Imambargah on Feb 9 last year in Jauharabad.

According to the prosecution, represented by Mazhar Qayyum, the four accused, with an absconding accused, Asif Ramzi, shot dead muazzin Imtiaz Hussain in an attack.

The jail authorities had earlier informed the court that the undertrial prisoners had not been produced in the court as the provincial government had notified the trial of sectarian murder cases inside the jail.

The judge, however, ordered the jail authorities to produce the accused in the court on the next date of hearing.

But the jail administration did not produce the UTPs in the court on that date of hearing, and the judge issued a show-cause notice to the superintendent of the Central Prison, Karachi, Rashid Saeed.

The jail superintendent appeared in the court and again informed it that the provincial government had notified the holding of trial of sectarian cases inside the jail.

The judge issued notice to the home secretary to appear in the court and explain the position. The home secretary, however, failed to comply with the ATC orders, which later issued bailable warrants for the arrest of Brig Mukhtar in the sum of Rs10,000.

On Thursday, a deputy home secretary, Tariq Shahnawaz, appeared along with an assistant advocate-general in the court, and moved an application offering apology on behalf of his boss and seeking withdrawal of the warrants against him.

The deputy home secretary also placed on record the permission granted by the Sindh High Court for holding the trial of sectarian cases inside the jail.

The judge, however, ordered that he would hear the application on the next date of the hearing, to be held inside the jail.

The jail superintendent, who was served with the show-cause notice for not producing the UTPs in the court, requested the court to grant him some time so that he would engage a counsel for the reply to the court notice. The judge granted his request and fixed June 14 to hear the matter.

The provincial authorities had notified in early April the trial of the accused belonging to the banned SSP and Tehrik-i-Jaferia Pakistan.

The provincial government, under a separate notification, notified the jail trial of Mohammed Rashid alias Andha along with Dilawar in two murder cases (22/2001, Jauharabad, and 36/2001, Soldier Bazaar.

However, the case 36/2001 of Soldier Bazaar, assigned to Judge Aley Maqbool Rizvi, concluded in open court even after the notification of trial inside the jail. The accused were awarded death penalty in the case.

The decision to hold jail trial of the banned sectarian parties was taken following an attack on a prisoners’ van, carrying sectarian workers, including Dildar, near Bohra Pir in the police limits of Nabi Bux. Police constable Shakil and another man were killed in the attack.

The judicial magistrate, South, Ms Irum Jahangir, remanded a worker of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, allegedly involved in the attack on the prisoners’ van in Bohra Pir, in police custody for interrogation for one day.