SHC seeks Rangers’ comments on missing Pasban leader

KARACHI:

The Sindh High Court (SHC) directed law officers of the Sindh Rangers on Thursday to submit their replies regarding the alleged unlawful detention of Pasban Pakistan's general-secretary, Usman Moazzam, and his son, Muhammad Siddiqui, by the Rangers.

A division bench, headed by Justice Ahmed Ali M Sheikh, asked the law officers to submit their reply by August 31.

Moazzam's wife, Subohi, had gone to court to seek the whereabouts of her husband and her son who have been missing since July 19.

The petitioner, alleged that Rangers personnel had raided their house in Federal B Area on July 19 and detained her husband and son.



When the Rangers authorities were approached to inquire about the detainees, they did not share any information regarding their whereabouts, she claimed.

Muhammad Farooq, the petitioner's lawyer, argued that the detention of his client's husband and son was in violation of the basic rights guaranteed in the Constitution. The official respondents were legally bound to protect the life and liberty of citizens but they failed to do so, he added.

The lawyer said the petitioner's other son, Saad Moazzam, has been missing since July 11 and a petition seeking his recovery is pending with the court.

Moazzam contested the by-polls on Karachi's National Assembly seat, NA-246, but lost to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement's Kanwar Javeed Jameel. "The petitioner apprehends that her husband was taken into custody because he had once given a statement for forming a separate province for the Mohajirs,"said Farooq.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 28^th, 2015.