Another missing person: Security agencies told to produce banned outfit’s spokesperson

LHC rejects plea, upholds ban on Hizbut Tahrir.

RAWALPINDI/ ISLAMABAD: A capital court on Monday directed the intelligence agencies to produce an activist of a banned outfit while a Rawalpindi court in a related petition rejected a plea upholding a ban on the proscribed organisation.

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) directed top officials of Military Intelligence and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to produce Hizbut Tehrir’s (HuT) spokesperson Naveed Butt before the court on May 18.

In a related development the Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi bench upheld a ban on the proscribed organisation, dismissing a six-year-old petition filed by HuT spokesperson.

In IHC, Butt’s wife, Saadia Rahat, had filed a petition for her husband’s recovery, who went missing on May 5.

IHC Chief Justice Iqbal Hameedur Rehman issued notices to Director-Generals (DGs) of ISI and MI and the Lahore-based deputy directors of the two premier agencies police officers.

The Petitioners counsel Umer Hayat Sindhu contended that Butt’s detention was illegal. He said that his client was on his way to pick his children from school near Liaquatabad, Lahore, when intelligence agencies’ officials kidnapped him. He alleged Butt had received threatening calls from unknown callers.

He informed the court Butt’s wife also approached the concerned police station, but they did not register a case. “Butt’s family approached senior intelligence officials to enquire about him, but in vain.”

The counsel argued that Butt’s life was in danger and he may be handed over to a foreign agency. He contended that several persons associated with HuT had gone missing from across the country after intelligence agencies took them into illegal detention. He prayed the court to declare his detention unlawful.

Meanwhile, Justice Khawaja Imtiaz Ahmed and Justice Chaudhry Muhammad Younus of the LHC Rawalpindi bench set aside a petition challenging the ban on HuT which is working for the establishment of khilafat (caliphate) in the world. The division bench of the LHC, in a short order, set aside the claim that the federal government had unlawfully banned the organisation and sealed its offices.

Butt had challenged the notification banning the HuT issued by the interior ministry in November 2003. He maintained that the federal government did not mention any reason for proscribing HuT while it was bound by law to cite reasons for taking action against an organisation.

“No one can be condemned unheard but the Musharraf government banned HuT without calling the members for an explanation, Sindhu said talking to The Express Tribune.”  The organisation has never indulged in anti-state or terrorist activities.” The ban is against the fundamental rights of forming associations for a collective cause as enshrined in the constitution, the lawyer argued.

Butt had urged the court to declare the ban unlawful and stop the authorities from harassing members of HuT as well as de-sealing its offices.

A deputy attorney general (DAG) representing the federation argued before the court that the petition was not maintainable under the law as Butt could not challenge the notification. The DAG said there were cases registered against HuT activists and the ban was lawful.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 15^th, 2012.