LAHORE, Nov 12: Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jilani of the Lahore High Court on Tuesday directed Deputy Attorney-General Dr Danishwar Malik to get in touch with the federal interior secretary to find out if former chief executive of Jinnah Hospital Dr Amir Aziz was in the custody of the Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI).

Directing the DAG to submit the reply received from the ISI during the hearing of the writ petition filed by Dr Amir’s mother Zakia Aziz and habeas corpus petition filed by Punjab PML-N President Khawaja Sa’ad Rafiq on Wednesday. The learned judge also directed him to address the court as to why Dr Amir Aziz should not be produced before the court.

Referring to a statement attributed to Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider published in a newspaper stating that Dr Amir Aziz was in custody and had not been extradited produced in the court by one of the defence counsels, the learned judge observed that the news item had not been contradicted by the interior ministry so far and he had thus been persuaded to direct the DGA to get in touch with the federal interior secretary for securing information about Dr Amir Aziz from the ISI.

Submitting the comments of the interior ministry on the petitions earlier the DAG stated that Dr Amir Aziz was not being detained by any organization under the administrative control of the ministry but the information from the Investigation Bureau (IB) and the Inter-Service Intelligence was still awaited. He later placed on the court record a fax message received from the IB through the interior ministry stating that it had no knowledge of the whereabouts of the detenu nor of the grounds of his arrest.

Defence Counsel Nasir Bhutto said that the government was telling truth outside but not inside the court. He submitted that interior minister’s statement that Dr Amir Aziz had not been extradited was in fact an admission that he was in the custody of the government. He submitted that the government was playing hide and seek with the court. “What is the harm in producing Dr Amir in the court in case he is in the custody of the government?”, he asked.

The learned judge observed that the court would send a bailiff for the recovery of Dr Amir if it was provided the address where he was being kept. The court had already passed an order that he should not be extradited without its permission.

Counsel A.K. Dogar submitted that incidents like disappearance of Dr Amir Aziz were taking place because the Constitution had been thrown away by the government. He said that he had been told that he, too, could disappear like Dr Amir Aziz for filing cases against the government.