RAWALPINDI, Jan 28: The Rawalpindi Bench of Lahore High Court conducted on Wednesday hearing of petitions challenging the detention of officials working in country's premier nuclear research laboratory at Kahuta, in chambers where only lawyers were allowed entry.
The outcome of the court hearings were reported to the press by the lawyers. They said Justice Maulvi Anwarul Haq had clarified that the proceedings in chambers were not "in Camera proceeding" but were only conducted for smooth hearing, after an incident on Tuesday.
According to the lawyers, an interesting situation arose in the chambers when one of the government lawyers first made the statement that implied that the officials of the Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) were being detained under the Army Act.
When the court inquired if it was the government stance before the court, the government's second lawyer, Tariq Shamim, intervened to retrieve the situation.
The government counsel did not submit any report on Wednesday and asked the court to grant more time as the government needed "reasonable" time to prepare the reply to seven petitions.
Justice Maulvi Anwarul Haq asked the counsel that if the government was finding it difficult to submit the reply in all the seven petitions, it should come up with only one reply.
The government counsel, however, insisted that more time was needed and the next hearing should be conducted on Feb 6. The court, however, adjourned hearing only for one day. The next hearing would be conducted on Friday.
The counsel for the petitioners, Chaudhry Mohammad Ikram, Barrister Tariq Kkokhar and Shah Khawar, said the court was asked to initiate contempt of court proceedings against the government for not honouring the court orders.
Barrister Tariq Khokhar argued that after the statements by the government counsel that the relatives of the petitioners were in government's security agencies, the court should pass production orders.
He referred to many superior court judgments in which it had issued production orders after it was admitted that the detenu was in government custody.
Deputy Attorney-General Tariq Mehmood Chaudhry said all the case laws which the counsel for the petitioner had cited were not relevant as the present case was totally different.
The government counsel said the judgments which were cited by the counsel related to the production of politicians, whereas in the present case it related to scientists.
The government counsel further said under the Army Act a person could be taken into custody without even registration of case or issuance of warrants. Justice Maulvi Anwarul Haq observed that he wanted to put the government counsel on caution as what he was saying would open the Pandora's Box. At this Tariq Shamim, Standing Counsel for the Federation, intervened and said it was not the government stance that the scientists and other officials were arrested under the Army Act.