By By Jamal Khurshid
The Sindh High Court (SHC) took notice of non-compliance of its order by the government law officers and directed the ministries of Interior, Defence, and Foreign Affairs to file comments on a petition against continuous the detention of Dr Aafiya Siddiqui and her two children by US authorities.
Intekhab Alam Suri and Imran Ahmed of the Human Rights Network filed a pro bono petition and submitted that Dr Siddiqui, a resident of Karachi, was kidnapped along with her three children, allegedly by law-enforcement agencies in March 2003 when she was leaving for Rawalpindi from her mother’s house.
The petitioners alleged US agencies — the CIA and the FBI — were also involved in the operation and submitted that threats were meted out to Dr Siddiqui’s family to remain silent over the abduction otherwise their lives could be in danger. They said that the detainees were handed over to US agencies by Pakistani law-enforcement agencies (LEAs) in violation of the Constitution. The counsel for the petitioner, Iqbal Aqeel, said that the detainees were not produced before any court of law in Pakistan and on a clue provided by British journalist Yvonne Ridley this year that Dr Siddiqui was detained at the Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan, the US authorities due to pressure of rights organizations, falsely showed her arrest in Afghanistan and booked her in a false case.
Dr Siddiqui is now facing trial in US for allegedly attacking US soldiers in Afghanistan.
The counsel said the Pakistani government had failed to fulfil the requirements of its undertaking rendered before the court of law in case regarding the extradition of Yousuf Ramzi to the US in 1997 as a government law officer undertook that the government would make all efforts to protect the lives and liberties of the citizens in accordance with the law. He said that handing over of Dr Siddiqui to the US was tantamount to the sale of a Pakistani citizen and violation of the law of the land.
He said that Dr Siddiqui’s son, Mohammad Ahmed Khan, was released by US authorities while the whereabouts of her two other children, Mohammad Suleman and baby Marium, were still unknown and the kidnapping case was also brought into knowledge of the IG Sindh as well as the federal government.
It was argued by the counsel that government had disrespected the nation by kidnapping the family of the detainee and that, a case should be registered against the people involved in kidnapping Dr Siddiqui and her children. The counsel contended that the US courts had no authority to conduct the trial without the fulfilment of lawful extradition formalities and as such, the detainees should be handed over to the Government of Pakistan.
The matter was taken up before the SHC’s division bench comprising Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Justice Faisal Arab. The court took notice over the non-compliance of court directions for filing comments on the petition by the ministries of Defence, Foreign Affairs and Interior. The court gave a last chance to the federal and provincial law officer to file comments on behalf of the respondent ministries. The court also observed that if comments were not filed within two weeks it would be presumed that the respondents had no defence to offer against government by the petitioner.
PML-Q leader released: The SHC allowed the petition of a Pakistan Muslim League – Quaid (PML-Q) leaders against his detention under the maintenance of public order (MPO) and directed the government to release the detainee.
Adeel Altaf Unar submitted that his father Altaf Unar had been detained by the government under the MPO since November soon after his release on bail in criminal cases.