LAHORE: The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a Punjab government appeal against the bail granted to three Afghan refugees in a case of illegal stay in Pakistan.

A deputy prosecutor told a three-judge bench that the Afghan nationals were accused of staying in Pakistan on forged documents. He said the suspects - Habibullah, Yaseen and Roohullah - had been living in Rajanpur illegally and police booked them for violation of Foreign Act. He said the trial court released the suspects on bail ignoring the record produced by the police.

The prosecutor further said the Afghan citizens had been misusing the concession of bail and avoiding appearance before the trial court. He asked the apex court to set aside the bail order of the trial court.

However, the Afghan nationals, present in the court, denied the arguments of the prosecutor and said they missed not a single hearing before the trial court.

The bench headed by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali dismissed the prosecution’s appeal and directed the trial court to conclude the case within three months.

Published in Dawn, December 2nd, 2015