A man has gone to court to challenge the detention of his nephew Ziauddin who has been missing since February 23, 2010.
A constitutional petition was filed in the Sindh High Court. According to the petitioner, Ziauddin’s uncle Abdul Qadir, the détenue was returning from his medical store when at about midnight, men in two vehicles whisked him away.
Maqboolur Rahman advocate, the petitioner’s counsel, submitted that this has become a common practice of intelligence agencies. They arrest a person and lock him up for years, he said. The freedom of a person is guaranteed under the law and even if a crime is committed, the authorities are bound to make arrests public and produce the accused in court, Rehman contended. “Anything else would be abduction and illegal custody.”
The SHC division bench of Chief Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi issued pre-admission notices to the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) director-general, Military Intelligence (MI), the Pakistan Rangers, the Quaidabad SHO, the Crime Investigation Department incharge, the Sindh home secretary and the Sindh Inspector General of Police. Notices were also issued to the Sindh advocate-general and the deputy attorney-general, directing them to collect information from all agencies on the case within two weeks.
The bench adjourned the hearing to a date to be fixed later by the court’s office.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 10th, 2011
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