SHC moved against detention of PTI leaders Usman Dar and Gazain Abbasi

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday issued notices to federal and provincial law officers on petitions against illegal detention of a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader and a former MPA from Punjab allegedly by personnel of law enforcement agencies.

The petitioners, Kamran and Sahibzada Mohammad Omar Abbasi, submitted in the petitions that police and personnel of law enforcement agencies had picked up former special assistant to prime minister Imran Khan on youth affairs Usman Dar and former MPA Sahibzada Gazain Abbasi from the Malir and DHA areas respectively.

They submitted that Dar was currently residing in the Malir Cantonment area was taken into custody by personnel of law enforcement agencies and it was witnessed by residents of the neighbourhood.

They submitted that former MPA of the PTI Abbasi was picked up from DHA and his whereabouts were still unknown. Their counsel submitted that neither were the police disclosing the whereabouts of the detained men nor were they being produced before any court of the law. The petitioners expressed apprehension about their lives and requested the high court to direct the police and law enforcement agencies to produce the detained men and provide details of cases, if any, against them.

A division bench of the SHC headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto after the preliminary hearing of the petition issued notices to the federal and provincial law officers and called their comments on September 20.

The bench also issued notices to police and law enforcement agencies on a petition against illegal detention of two persons from Mirpurkhas. Petitioner Allah Bachayo submitted in the petition that his son Allah Bux and nephew Dildar Ali were picked up by personnel of law enforcement agencies while they were travelling from Mirpurkhas to Sanghar on August 13 and their whereabouts were unknown. He requested the SHC to direct police and other law enforcement agencies to produce the detained persons before the court. The SHC observed that liberty of a person was supreme and directed provincial and federal law officers to file comments on the petition on September 25.