SHC asks Centre to explain foreign travel ban on Baloch activists

Karachi
The Sindh High Court directed the federal government on Monday to provide an explanation with supporting material as to why the names of Baloch activists Mama Abdul Qadeer and Farzana Majeed had been placed on the exit control list.
The directives came on a petition filed by Qadeer and Majeed, the vice-chairman and the secretary of the Voice of Baloch Missing Persons, respectively.
The petitioners submitted that they had been protesting against the enforced disappearance of missing Baloch persons and set up camps outside the Karachi Press Club. Their counsel submitted that Jalil Reki, Qadeer’s son, was taken away by security personnel and later his body was found in Mand, Balochistan. Whereas Farzana’s brother, Zakir Majeed, was missing for the last six or seven years.
The counsel submitted that the petitioners were invited by the Sindh Academic and Cultural Society of North America to attend a conference on March 4 but they were prohibited from leaving the country on the ground that their names were on the exit control list.
The federal law officer submitted that the names of the petitioners were placed on the list because of their involvement in anti-State activities.
The court directed the law officer to place on record the material on the basis of which their names were placed in list.
Detention cases
The high court issued notices to the federal and provincial law officers, police and Rangers on a petition against the alleged illegal detention of citizens including a government officer and a prayer leader, by the law enforcement agencies.
The petitioners Saira, Khairun Nisa, Mian Hidayatullah, Sajjad Ahmed, Mohammad Qamar, Mohsin Zafar, Inayatullah Khan, Mohammad Omer, Shanaz Ausaf, Abdul Sattar and Seema Waheed, submitted that the law enforcement agencies had arrested Abdul Naeem, Abdul Hameed, Syed Nigar Shah, Rizwan Ahmed, Arsalan Qamar, Ali Asad Mohsin, Mohammad Fahad, Maulana Samiullah, Fazal Subhan, Mirza Ausaf Baig, Abid and Waheed Ahmed in raids conducted in Lines Area, North Karachi, Baldia Town, Gulistan-e-Johar, Gulshan-e-Iqbal and Korangi.
Inayatullah Khan submitted that Maulana Samiullah, the prayer leader at the Masjid Ameer Muawiya in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, whisked away by security personnel on April 5 and his whereabouts are unknown.
Seema Waheed submitted that her spouse, Waheed Ahmed, was a government officer and he was picked up by Rangers near Civic Centre on April 16.
The counsel for the petitioners submitted that police and Rangers were neither disclosing the whereabouts of these people, nor showing that they had been arrested.
The court directed the law officers to file comments on the issue.