Following unheeded requests: PHC orders govt to produce ailing detainee in court

Murad Ali, interned in Mohmand Agency, suffers from TB and needs treatment.

PESHAWAR:

After relevant authorities failed to produce a report on the health of a detainee at an internment centre in Ghallanai, Mohmand Agency despite clear directions, the Peshawar High Court ordered the sick inmate be produced in court on June 11.

A division bench of Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Ikramullah Khan was hearing 22 petitions of enforced disappearances. Additional Attorney General Attique Shah, Deputy Attorney General Manzoor Khalil and Additional Advocate General Waqar Ahmad Khan appeared before the PHC bench on Wednesday.

When the bench took up the cases for hearing, it was informed that Murad Ali, a detainee at Ghallanai, suffers from tuberculosis and is in need of treatment.

As the individual is detained in Mohmand Agency, the issue comes under the jurisdiction of the additional chief secretary of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), Waqar informed the court.

The court then stated similar orders were issued on March 27 and April 24 this year, wherein the person in charge of the interment centre was directed to produce a complete report on the health of the detainee but he failed to comply with the orders. Therefore, the detainee should be produced in the court on June 11, the next date of hearing.

Meanwhile, Advocate Ziaul Haq, counsel of Jehangir Khan, told the court the police arrested a suspected suicide bomber, Bilal, and his handler, Khan, on November 20, 2012 in the jurisdiction of Sarband police station.

He said the police held a news conference soon after the arrest and paraded both the suspects in front of the media. Later, Bilal was produced before an anti-terrorism court but the whereabouts of Jehangir are unknown since.

The court was informed that a non-bailable arrest warrant for Sarband police station SHO Safdar Khan was issued on the last hearing as he was late to appear in the court and requested that the warrant be withdrawn. The court accepted the plea.

The bench observed that police officials are clearly visible in the picture of the incident that was published in various newspapers at the time and if any agency has taken the person then its name needs to be disclosed.

The court then ordered the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) IGP and intelligence agencies to submit their reports in the instant case and sought a comprehensive report of the incident on the next hearing on June 26.

A report produced before the PHC bench on Tuesday stated that 708 missing persons are detained at eight internment centres in K-P and Fata while a ground-check and verification for the rest is in progress.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 22^nd, 2014.