ISLAMABAD, Nov 1: Memoona Javed Hashmi, the daughter of detained PML-N leader Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, on Saturday filed a habeas corpus petition before the Lahore High Court, Rawalpindi bench, seeking its direction for the recovery of her father from alleged confinement.
Lawyer and PML-N leader Zafar Ali Shah told reporters that the petition was submitted under section 491 (power to issue directions of the nature of habeas corpus) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). The petition has been fixed before Justice Mansoor Ahmed Khan of the LHC on Monday at 8am, Mr Shah claimed.
SSP Islamabad, Shahid Nadeem Baloch, SHO Police Station Secretariat, Islamabad, Zubair Sheikh, and the State have been named as respondents in the petition.
The petition was submitted by Zafar Ali Shah and Razzaq A Mirza while Barrister Aitezaz Ahsan would plead the case.
Javed Hashmi, against whom a case of mutiny was lodged in the Police Station Secretariat, Islamabad, was arrested from the Parliamentary Lodges on Oct 29 when he was leaving the Lodge at around 10.30pm to keep an appointment. Since then his whereabouts are not known.
The petitioner has prayed the court to recover her father through bailiff of the court from the illegal detention of the respondents and produce before the court for further proceedings in accordance with the law.
The petition stated that the detenue was not produced before any court of law nor was the petitioner provided with a copy of the FIR, despite the fact that she had been trying her level best to obtain the same since the government claimed of its existence the next morning — a situation which created doubts whether a case had at all been filed against the petitioner’s father.
She stated that the detention of her father in Sihala Rest House, Islamabad, was totally illegal and the fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution through Articles 4 (right of individuals to be dealt with in accordance with law) and 9 (security of person) was being infringed upon.
The petition stated that the National Assembly was in session and Mr Hashmi, being an elected member of parliament, had to attend the ongoing session of the lower house, which was also his privilege under Article 66 of the Constitution (privilege of members).
She also recalled that her father was supposed to be produced before the court of law for remand after his arrest, but she along with the counsel kept waiting outside the court’s premises till 8pm in the night, but Mr Hashmi was not produced before any court of competent jurisdiction in Islamabad.
Amir Waseem adds:
Later, speaking at a press conference at the Parliament Lodges, Memoona Hashmi alleged that her father was in the custody of army or some intelligence agency due to which he was not being allowed to meet his daughter or lawyers. This was the reason, she added, why his remand was obtained without producing him before any court of law on Friday.
She said that when the National Assembly Speaker talked to the interior minister and the police officials by telephone in the presence of opposition members and some newsmen, they expressed their ignorance about registration of the case and the whereabouts of Mr Hashmi.
She also expressed her fear that Mr Hashmi might have been “physically tortured”. She said her father had recently undergone a surgery and was a patient of asthma. She said denial of medicines to a patient was also a form of torture and the human rights bodies should take notice of the situation.
Ms Hashmi described Gen Musharraf as a “usurper”. “A retired general has usurped powers and claims to be the representative of people,” she added.
She also condemned the government for arresting PML-N activists and workers, who were staging a protest demonstration in Lahore on Friday.
Chief coordinator of the PML-N Ahsan Iqbal said if the government believed that Mr Hashmi was a traitor then Hamoodur Rahman’s body should also be exhumed for a treason trial because he had also stated that the army should not take part in politics.