Missing person’s case: Govt counsel asks for more time

Intelligence agencies asked to file affidavits.

KARACHI: A division bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC) adjourned the hearing of a constitutional petition challenging the alleged illegal detention of an employee of Gwadar Development Authority.

On Monday, the standing counsel for the federal government sought more time to file comments by Inter-Services Intelligence Director General and Military Intelligence along with supporting affidavits. The bench also directed Jamshed Quarters SHO to file his affidavit. Earlier, the bench heard Masood Ghani, counsel for petitioner Abid Ali, brother of Muhammad Arif, who went missing on October 30, when a joint raiding party allegedly arrested him from his family residence in Garden, Karachi.

The petitioner said that his brother was in an accident in August, 2010 and was referred by a medical officer of the Balochistan government for treatment in Karachi. Arif was being treated by Prof Aminuddin Bhatti at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre and was advised bed rest. He was in his apartment when policemen in uniforms, accompanied by men in civilian dress, forcibly entered and after blindfolding Arif, they took him to an undisclosed location. Since then the family has been looking for him but to no avail.

The bench allowed the counsel’s request and adjourned further proceedings till Feb 20.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 25^th, 2011.