Wife seeks Moazzam Ali Khan’s release on bail

The suspect is being interrogated for financing the killers of Dr Imran Farooq

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) issued on Tuesday notices to the relevant federal and provincial authorities on a petition seeking the release of Moazzam Ali Khan, who was kept in 90-days prevention detention by the Rangers to investigate allegations of financing the killers of Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader Dr Imran Farooq.

A division bench, headed by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, directed the deputy attorney-general and provincial advocate-general to file the officials' comments by July 16.

Khan's wife, Saadia Bano, moved an application seeking the urgent hearing of a petition against the detention of her husband and to seek bail for his release.

She said that the Rangers have kept her husband in the Mitha Ram Hostel, which is declared as a sub-jail, under 90-day detention — a recently enacted legal provision under Section 11EEEE of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997. She said the paramilitary force had disclosed his detention for three months, which expired on July 13.

Bano told the two judges that the provincial director-general of paramilitary force has withdrawn the orders for further detention of her husband, whose period of interrogation had completed.

The court was informed that the Rangers DG had also issued a no-objection certificate in respect of Khan, but he was still not being released. She said they were ready to furnish the amount of surety so that the detainee could be freed from the Rangers' detention. She pleaded the court to order the Rangers and police high-ups to produce Khan in the high court. Allowing the request for urgent hearing, the judges issued notices to the DAG and Sindh AG for July 13 to file the comments of the federal and provincial authorities.

Right to meeting

The same bench also issued notices to the Rangers DG, the Karachi central prison superintendent and others for allegedly not allowing families to meet two detained activists of the Sunni Tehreek (ST).

The judges called comments from the provincial chiefs of the police and the Rangers, which have been carrying out the targeted operation against criminals in Karachi, by July 16.

The petitions were filed by the relatives of Muhammad Arif and Shakil Ahmed, who were taken into custody by the Rangers during a raid on the ST's headquarters in Moin Plaza on June 18. The Rangers spokesperson had claimed that the two were involved in extortion collection and murder of a Muttahida Qaumi Movement activist.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 15^th, 2015.