ISLAMABAD, Sept 24: The Supreme Court clubbed on Monday a set of identical petitions challenging the promulgation of Action in Aid of Civil Power Regulations-2011 and Section 2(1d) of the Army Act-1952.

The court also ordered its office to issue notices to the respondents, including premier intelligence agencies namely the Inter-Service Intelligence and Military Intelligence.

The Action in Aid of Civil Power Regulations-2011 allows the civil government to confine persons accused of terrorism in internment centers in Parachinar in Kurram Agency. Section 2(1d) of the Army Act-1,952 allows arrest of civilians on terrorism charges.

A three-judge bench, comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, had taken up the petitions moved by Prof Mohammad Ibrahim of Jamaat-i-Islami, Sher Mohammad, president of the Swat Bar Association and advocate Tariq Asad.

The court allowed Mr Asad to re-submit his petition in a week after making required amendments because his client Ruhaifa, mother of Abdul Majid and Abdul Basit who had been detained in the internment centre, had died.

The two brothers were among the 11 prisoners who went missing from the gate of Rawalpindi’s Adiyala Jail on May 29, 2010 after they had been acquitted of terrorism charges pertaining to their alleged involvement in the audacious Oct 2009 attacks on GHQ and ISI’s Hamza Camp in Rawalpindi.

Later, four of the 11 died in mysterious circumstances and the remaining seven were produced before the apex court on Feb 13 in a bad shape. They were sent to the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar on court orders. After five of them recovered, they were shifted to an internment centre in Parachinar.

Mr Asad, who is pursuing the cases of the Adiyala prisoners, claims that the arrest of the accused was illegal because civilians could only be arrested when they become subject to the Army Act under its section 2 (1d) for instigating or attempting to instigate any member of the armed forces to commit an act of terrorism against a military installation.

The court also told Mr Asad to keep in mind that he had to assist the court in reaching a conclusion whether the jurisdiction of the court could be extended to the tribal areas under relevant laws so that the confinement of the inmates at the internment centers could be declared illegal.