Espionage charges: Court directs PAF to try detained officer per law

ISLAMABAD:

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) while directing the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) to try a squadron leader facing espionage charges as per law has disposed of a petition challenging his ‘illegal’ detention.

Petitioner Dr Faiza Hassan had challenged in the court that PAF authorities have detained her husband, Squadron Leader Hassan Akhtar, for the last seven months without framing a charge-sheet against him.

The petitioner’s counsel Col (retd)  Inamur Rahim told the court that under the PAF Act, an official facing such charges should be charge-sheeted within 48 hours of detention but his client’s husband has not been given any such document so far.

“As per the law, no one can be detained for more than 48 hours and, if it happens, the relevant commanding officer could face court martial,” the petitioner’s counsel told the court.

During the previous hearing, the PAF authorities had informed the court in a written reply that they have detained the officer on espionage charges.  On Wednesday, the deputy attorney general told the court that Akhtar was taken into custody on March 4.

In a short verbal order, IHC judge Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui observed that the way the PAF authorities have detained the squadron leader was not in accordance with law.

Justice Siddiqui asked under which law he has been kept in detention for the last several months. He observed that keeping anyone in detention without following a legal course was a violation of fundamental rights.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 30^th, 2015.