LAHORE, Nov 13: Justice Tassaduq Husain Jilani of the Lahore High Court has directed the interior secretary to produce orthopaedic surgeon Dr Amir Aziz, arrested last month because of his alleged connections with the Taliban and Al Qaeda, in his court on Friday.

“The court has full powers to enforce the rights of citizens under the Constitution,” the judge observed during the hearing of a writ petition filed by doctor’s mother Zakia Aziz and a habeas corpus petition filed by Punjab PML-N secretary-general Khawaja Sa’ad Rafiq praying for his recovery and release.

Issuing the directive, the learned judge also restrained the government from extraditing the former chief executive of Jinnah Hospital without the leave of the court.

The production order was issued at the end of the working hours of the court after Deputy Attorney General Dr Danishwar Malik failed to comply with the directive to secure the version of the Inter-Services Intelligence through the interior secretary and started arguing that it was not part of the interior ministry and the court could not issue a directive for the production of a detenu to it.

The learned judge observed in his order that the DAG had submitted that Dr Amir was not with the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the reply from the ISI was still awaited. He had submitted that he was not sure whether Dr Amir was being detained by the ISI or not.

Meanwhile, the counsel for the petitioner had cited newspaper reports attributed to the interior minister saying that Dr Amir was under detention and had not been extradited.

He observed that the DAG had contended that the court could not issue a production order to the ISI in view of restrictions imposed under Article 191 of the Constitution. He observed that the fact that the detenu had been detained but the ministry of interior was not aware of the place of his detention and grounds thereof could not be believed. The reply submitted by the interior secretary in respect of Dr Amir’s detention was rather evasive.

He observed that he would not like to comment any further on the detention of Dr Amir in connection with the terrorist activities of an organization. In no civilized country a court should condone any of such acts.

He observed in his order that the counsel for the detenu had contended that the court was mandated to enforce the constitutional provisions prescribing that no one shall be detained without observing the due process of law. He cited the Supreme Court judgment in the Malik Ghulam Jilani Case in support of the argument.

The judge observed that the detenu was a citizen of the country and was entitled to all the rights under Article 4 of the Constitution which mandated that protection under the law was an inalienable right of all citizens and they were to be treated strictly in accordance with the law.

The judge observed in his order that Article 10 of the Constitution provided that no arrested person shall be detained without observing due process of law. Moreover, every person placed under detention would be informed about the grounds of his arrest as soon as possible and shall not be denied the right to be defended by the counsel of his choice.

The judge observed that the Constitution also provided that every arrested person shall be produced before a magistrate within 24 hours of being taken into custody excluding the time necessary for the journey to the court and shall not be kept in detention beyond the period prescribed by him.

He observed that the counsel for the petitioner had quoted a Supreme Court judgment in which the power of the court to enforce the rights of the citizens had been reiterated. The objection of the Deputy Attorney General with regard to restrictions on the power of the court under Article 199(3) of the Constitution was not tenable. The court had full powers under the Constitution to enforce the rights of the citizens which could not be taken away in an arbitrary manner.

The court directed Dr Malik to get in touch with the interior secretary to find out if the former chief executive of Jinnah Hospital was in the custody of the ISI.

Directing the DAG to submit the reply received from the ISI during the hearing of the two petitions, the judge ordered him to also address the court as to why Dr Amir should not be directed to be produced before the court.

Referring to a statement attributed to Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider published in a newspaper stating that the surgeon was in (government) custody and had not been extradited produced in the court by one of the defence counsel Ehsan Wain, the learned judge observed that the news item had not been contradicted by the interior ministry so far and he had thus been persuaded to direct the DAG to get in touch with the interior secretary for securing information about Dr Amir from the ISI.

Earlier, the DAG could not furnish the reply of the ISI in respect of Dr Amir’s detention when the case came for hearing soon after the commencement of the court proceedings in the morning and the judge had to adjourn the hearing of the petitions till noon to allow him time to contact the interior secretary to secure the reply of the ISI about the doctor’s detention.