PHC seeks reply from Home & Tribal Affairs Dept over missing student

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has sought reply from the secretary Home and Tribal Affairs Department Khyber Pakhtunkhwa over the alleged missing of a student after his release from the Central Prison Peshawar on bail on terrorism charges.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Nisar Hussain Khan and Justice Roohul Amin Khan issued the notice to secretary Home and Tribal Affairs to submit reply and explain as how the citizen was picked up from outside the prison when he had been released by the prison authorities.

Professor Hafiz Howaish, a resident of Swabi, had filed habeas corpus petition through his lawyer Mukhtiar Ahmad Maneri for the safe recovery of his son Israr Ahmad. He was an MPhil student of Physics and went missing after release from the prison. He was facing terrorism charges.

The petitioner’s lawyer submitted before the court that the petitioner waited from morning till evening outside the prison to receive his son from the prison, but he did not come out of the prison.

During the hearing, Central Prison Peshawar Superintendent Masoodur Rehman produced the prison’s record before the bench. As per the record, the missing student had been released.

About the arrest of the student, the lawyer submitted that the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) had arrested him and claimed that the police had recovered a hand grenade and arms from his possession. However, he said due to lack of evidence the Anti-Terrorism Court issued his release order on bail.

The lawyer said when the father went for receiving his son after his bail in the charges, the prison police told him that the CTD Mardan police had taken him from outside the prison when he was released.

H said that the Anti-Terrorism Court again ordered his release on bail after the police failed to provide evidence about his son’s involvement in terrorism cases. This time again, he said the petitioner’s son did not come out of the prison after his release on bail.

The court after hearing, arguments and prison authorities report, issued notice to secretary Home to submit detail reply in the petition and whereabouts of the student. Separately, another bench of the high court comprising Justice Syed Afsar Shah and Justice Muhammad Younas Thahim issued notice to secretary Irrigation and Superintendent Engineer Canal Peshawar in a writ petition filed against two percent advance security in government contracts from contractors in the province.

The writ petition was filed by All Pakistan Contractors Association through its general secretary Sardar Ali. The petitioner’s lawyer Farooq Malik submitted that some months ago the provincial government had withdrawn the order of two percent advance security in government contracts on the court’s directives, but now again the Irrigation department demanded two percent advance security in the name of additional tax for various contracts of the canals construction, which is against the law and order of the court.