The two identical petitions questioned the Sindh government’s decision to further detain Afaq under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) rules even though he was granted bail in the last case against him. The extra detention orders came on September 28 just as he was about to be released after being in jail since 2004.
For its part, the advocate general of Sindh, who is representing the provincial government, the main office named in the petition, submitted an October 6 letter issued by the additional chief secretary for the home department. According to it, the detention order was withdrawn.
On Friday, Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Salman Hamid heard both sides and dismissed the petition filed by a social worker Syed Iqbal Kazmi and another by Afaq’s younger brother.
The bench also rejected a request to order that he shall not be arrested in a new case. The bench observed that the fears expressed by the petitioner’s counsel that Afaq will be arrested in some other new case are “presumptive”. New warrants for Afaq’s arrest were secured by the Korangi police on Thursday. He is now wanted as a fugitive in a kidnapping for ransom case.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 8th, 2011.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ