Court orders provision of medical treatment to Safoora facilitator

Karachi

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday directed the federal law officer to ensure that proper medical treatment was provided to a suspect, arrested in connection with the Safoora bus massacre, as and when required.

The directives came on an application filed by Hira Siddiqui (wife of the accused), who had challenged the transfer of the case to the military court trial of her spouse Sultan Qamar Siddiqui and brother in law Hussain Umer Siddiqui in Safoora goth killing case.

The petitioner had challenged the federal government’s decision regarding shifting the trial from an anti-terrorism court (ATC) to military courts.

She submitted that the police and law enforcement agencies had illegally detained Siddiqui and brother-in-law for more than three months and later falsely implicated in the case.

Over 45 people including 18 women of Ismaili community were killed while onboard a bus carrying the passengers to Al-Azhar Garden near Safoora Goth on May 13 last year.

Petitioner’s counsel Khawaja Mohammad Azeem submitted that procedures adopted by the provincial and federal authorities with regard to the transfer of trial proceedings were illegal, and argued that under Section 17(4) of the Pakistan Protection Act no case could be transferred to the military court without approval of the relevant trial court.

Filing miscellaneous application, the petitioner’s counsel also informed the court that health of one detainee Hussain Umer was deteriorating by every passing day and that he required proper medical treatment. Additional Attorney General Salman Talibuddin requested the court to grant him time to ascertain the facts.

SHC’s division bench headed by Justice Irfan Saadat Khan directed the federal law officer to ensure that Hussain received proper medical treatment as and when required. Additional Advocate General Mohammad Sarwar Khan submitted that the comments of IG Prisons were not required as the custody of detainees had been handed over to the military authorities. The court directed the law officer to furnish evidence regarding handing over the custody of detainees to military authorities.

The federal and provincial governments filed their respective comments submitting that all legal formalities had been followed while shifting the trial proceedings to military courts and that the 21st constitutional amendments had overriding effect in all existing laws.

The government said all legal and constitutional formalities were followed in letter and spirit and that the legal committee had found the case fit to be tried in a military court. The government law officers pleaded the court to dismiss the petition, alleging the same was based on mala fide intention and with intent to delay the proceedings of the high profile case. The counsel of the Rangers sought time to file the comments on the petition; the hearing was adjourned till March 2.

Airport detention case

The SHC directed the in-charge of the Airport Security Force’s (ASF) information technology department to submit a report with regard to the storage capacity of closed-circuit monitoring cameras installed at the Karachi airport.

The court had on October 29 ordered the official to furnish a detailed statement along with the certificate of the monitoring camera company that CCTV cameras installed at the airport did not have the capacity to store data for more than 25 days. The directives came on a petition of a woman who had challenged the detention of her spouse allegedly by personnel of law enforcement agencies from within the premises of the airport. The petitioner, Wajeeha Yaqoob, submitted that her spouse, Mirza Saud Ali Baig, who was working as an architect in a private construction company in Dubai, was deported by the Dubai authorities on September 1, 2015 .