KARACHI, July 20: The Sindh High Court asked a federal attorney on Thursday to ascertain the authority that controlled the Inter-Services Intelligence and other agencies.

Deputy Attorney-General Akhtar Ali Mehmood produced an affidavit sworn by the defence secretary stating that the ministry had nothing to do with the detention of Balochistan Jamhoori Watan Party leaders Salim Baloch, Abdur Rauf Sasoli, Saeed Brohi and Brahim Saleh.

Identical statements on behalf of the defence and interior ministries were made as six other petitions alleging illegal confinement came up before a division bench consisting of Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice Mohammad Afzal Soomro. The defence secretary reiterated that the ISI and the Military Intelligence were not under the operational control of the defence ministry.

Appearing for the alleged detainees, Advocates Noor Naz Agha, S.M. Iqbal and Rasheed A. Razvi submitted that stereotyped statements blandly denying knowledge of whereabouts of missing people were not sufficient to absolve the federal government of its obligations in this behalf.

The ministries concerned should not confine themselves to denying their responsibility only and should inform the court who else was responsible. Under whose operational control did the two agencies work, they asked.

The bench observed that the government was responsible for tracing the whereabouts of any citizen or individual disappearing in the country. The court should be informed of the controlling authority of the various agencies and who was to be held responsible if a person went missing.

The provincial and federal governments could not just wash their hands off their responsibility by saying that their whereabouts were not known or that they might have been detained by an agency not working under the control of a particular ministry. It asked the DAG to answer the questions raised by the petitioners’ counsel and adjourned the hearing of petitions to July 31.

SURGEONS SUMMONED: The bench summoned two surgeons of the Civil Hospital who reported that a wheelchair-bound under-trial prisoner required no surgical intervention.

Wazir Ahmed was arrested in January 2005 after a shootout in Baldia Town. He received bullet injuries in the shootout and was paralysed. His mother said in her petition that under-trial Wazir was not being provided any treatment in jail and that she feared for his life. The court ordered production of the prisoner with his medical record.

Central Prison superintendent Nusrat Hussain Mangan produced the UTP and medical officer Ayaz Ali the record. According to the Civil Hospital neurosurgeon, who examined the prisoner along with the orthopaedic surgeon, the bullet that hit Wazir’s spine in the shooting had traversed the spinal chord and there was no need for neurosurgical intervention.

The orthopaedic surgeon gave an identical opinion. Dr Ayaz Ali said the ailment might be treated by physiotherapy but the facility was not available in the prison.

The bench summoned the Civil Hospital surgeons to appear and explain the prisoner’s medical condition on July 31.