ISLAMABAD:
A man moved the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday seeking his release from Adiala Jail while claiming that charges levelled against him have not been proven.
After hearing the case, IHC Chief Justice Iqbal Hameedur Rehman issued notices to Interior Secretary Khawaja Mohammad Siddiqu and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Director General Tahseen Anwar Shah to give their responses by August 18.
Defence counsel Nawabzada Khan maintained that his client, Nurab Khan, has been sent to Adiala Jail twice since his arrest in August 2006, even though charges of money laundering and narcotics transportation levelled against him have not been proven. The petitioner was granted bail in 2009 but the court decided to keep him under physical remand.
The accused is a resident of Peshawar and owns an import-export business.
The counsel claimed that his client was arrested at the request of the US government under the Extradition Act 1972, even though no extradition treaty is in place between Pakistan and the US.
The counsel maintained that the decision to keep his client in prison is based primarily on an inquiry report submitted on July 28, conducted by a committee supervised by an additional deputy commissioner (ADC), which recommended that the accused be kept in prison till the final order of the federal government.
He stated that that inquiry committee has not issued a single notice to his client and did not give him the opportunity to defend his case. “During the inquiry, not a single witness appeared before the committee and the prosecution failed to prove the case against him,” the petitioner’s counsel informed the court.
The petitioner pleaded innocence before the IHC, requesting that he be released from custody and that all charges levelled against him be dropped.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 4th, 2011.
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