Petitioners accused of contravening Foreigners Act 1946. PHOTO: AFP/FILE
A no objection certificate from the government is mandatory for every Afghan living in Pakistan, observed the Lahore High Court on Thursday.
Justice Khalid Mahmood Khan made the remark when the counsel for two Afghans – Hameedullah Khan and Tasbeeh Khan – seeking bail told the court that affidavits had been submitted by two neighbours of the Afghans that state that Hameed and Tasbeeh had been living in Thatha Faqirullah for a long time and were not ‘suspicious’.
According to an FIR, registered at the Wazirabad Saddar police station, three men on a bike fled when they were signalled to stop at a police picket.
The police claims to have chased them and to have recovered mobile phones, cash and an illegal 0.30 bore pistol from them.
The petitioners say that the FIR – registered under Foreigners Act 1946 and for carrying an unlicensed weapon – is “baseless and concocted”.
A magistrate, on October 25, 2012, had turned down their bail application. An additional district and session judge, too, denied Hameed and Tasbeeh bail but gave bail to their third companion.
During the hearing, Justice Khan also chided the police and other law enforcement agencies for conducting improper investigations that he said fuelled terrorism.
The judge also issued a show cause notice to a Wazirabad magistrate for granting superddari (legal possession) of a motorcycle, recovered by police from Afghans, to a man who was not the rightful owner.
The magistrate, Saifullah Babar, was told to appear before the court on February 4 after the court was told that he had given a Honda motorcycle GAK 13 - 1256, recovered from suspects Hameedullah Khan and Tasbeeh Khan, to one Ahmed Gul Khan.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 1st, 2013.
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