Imran Farooq murder suspect in FIA custody, SHC told

Karachi
A Karachi Water and Sewerage Board accountant, believed to be involved in the murder of Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader Dr Imran Farooq, is under the preventive detention of the Federal Investigation Agency for 90 days under the Protection of Pakistan Act, the agency’s director told the Sindh High Court on Monday.
Filing statement on a petition filed by Beena Khalid, KWSB accountant Khalid Shamim’s wife, FIA director Shahid Hayat said the petitioner’s spouse was arrested by the Frontier Constabulary while entering Pakistan without any legal documents.
The petitioner approached the court against his likely extradition from Pakistan to UK for interrogation.
Beena submitted that her spouse was taken away by law enforcement agencies from Malir Halt on January 6, 2011.
She said the law enforcement agencies had claimed that Shamim, who frequently travelled to other countries between July 4, 2008 and September 22, 2010, was arrested at the Chaman border by the FC and was handed over to the FIA. She added that the federal government had formed a joint investigation team to interrogate her spouse.
She apprehended that her husband’s life was in danger.
Referring to media reports about Shamim’s alleged involvement in the murder of Dr Imran Farooq in London, the petitioner feared that her husband might be shifted outside the country for interrogation and pleaded to the court to restrain the relevant authorities from doing so.
The FIA director submitted in his statement that Shamim was arrested by the FC while entering Pakistan without valid legal travel documents and had been detained under the Section 11EEEE of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.
He added that Shamim was involved in the conspiracy to kill the MQM leader and also assisted the attackers.
Therefore, he maintained, the federal government had issued the order for the preventive detention of the suspect in the custody of the FIA in Islamabad for a period of 90 days exercising the powers conferred under the Section 6 of the Protection of Pakistan Ordinance, 2014.
The petitioner requested the court to allow her spouse to meet his family. The federal law officer submitted that the petitioner could approach the FIA officer concerned in Islamabad to make this request.
An SHC division bench headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar asked the petitioner to approach the head of the joint investigation team, Inam Ghani, and submit a request for a meeting with her husband. The court also directed Ghani to entertain the petitioner’s request.
The petitioner’s counsel, during the pendency of the petition, had informed the court that as per media reports, Shamim was taken into custody by the law enforcement agencies at the Karachi airport in August 2011 along with other suspects in connection with the assassination of the MQM leader in London, and were not disclosing his whereabouts.
He had placed on record the transcript of news telecasts on TV channels that suggested that the petitioner’s husband was picked up by the federal law enforcement agencies and he was still in their custody for the purpose of extracting certain sensitive information regarding his involvement in the crime committed in London.
The federal and provincial law enforcement agencies, however, had denied arresting or detaining Shamim and the police officers investigating the case had said efforts were being made to find him and a joint investigation team had been formed to probe into the matter.