The Sindh High Court (SHC) directed the federal government’s law officer to explain why a student had been detained by the Rangers for 90 days under the Pakistan Protection Ordinance (PPO) 2013.
A division bench, headed by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, also called for the report from the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) as the case had been referred to them for the investigation.
These directions came in a case related to the alleged unlawful detention of a third-year civil engineering student from Jinnah Polytechnic Institute, Muhammad Hanif Rana, by the Rangers since May 1.
Rana’s father, Muhammad Nadeem, has taken the provincial chiefs of Rangers , the police, Karachi Central Prison’s superintendent and the Garden police station’s house officer to court for the his son’s alleged and unlawful detention.
He submitted that Rangers personnel had picked up his son from a market in in Usmanabad at 8pm on May 1 without giving any information about why he was being taken into custody. Muhammad Nadeem, then, went to the Garden police station to lodge a report but the officers refused.
Later, the family obtained information from the Anti-Terrorism Court-III in Karachi that Rana was remanded into custody of the Rangers for 90 days under Section 6 of the PPO. The family tried to meet Rana, but the jail superintendent did not give them permission to do so. The petitioner told the judges that his son was a third-year student and was not affiliated with any political party or criminal gang. Therefore, he said, these allegations of disturbing public order would affect his future.
Muhammad Nadeem’s lawyer, Javed Chhatari, argued that such detentions under Section 6 of the Pakistan Protection Ordinance were based on malafide that amounts to cultivate the persons against the law enforcement agencies and the concept of the State of Pakistan.
While contending that his client’s son had no criminal background, the lawyer argued that in the absence of any procedure of investigation under Section 155 of the Code of Criminal Procedure the detention of a person only in the name of suspect was purely against the Constitution and no liberty of a person can be secured without having proper reasons and plausible evidence. He said that that the petitioner’s son was between 20-21, and added that the allegation was severe in nature and could cost Rana his future.
He pleaded the court declare the Rangers’ act of detaining a man for 90 days as illegal, unconstitutional and a misuse of power. He urged the judges to order release the of Hanif Rana as his detention was a violation of the article 10 of the Constitution. Furthermore, he asked the court to call report from the officials explaining in details what charges and allegations were put against the petitioner’s son to keep him in custody for 90 days.
On Wednesday, Advocate Javed Chhatari informed the court that he had filed the amended pray of petition, pleading the court to set aside the order of DG Rangers passed on May 4 under Section 11-EEEE of the ATA 1997 for detention of Hanif for custody for 90 days.
Standing Counsel, Sheikh Liaquat Hussain, said that the matter had already been referred to the Joint Investigation Team, but were still waiting for their report. He sought time to file the same to the court.
Allowing the request, the bench directed the standing counsel to submit the federal government’s comments regarding Rana’s detention along with the latest progress by the JIT. The hearing was adjourned till July 9.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 3rd, 2014.
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