17 illegal Bangladeshi immigrants jailed for five years each

Karachi
The Malir district court awarded a total of 85 years’ imprisonment to 17 illegal immigrants from Bangladesh on Monday.
The additional district and sessions judge for district Malir, Akhtar Sultana, ruled that suspects who belonged to the same family had violated the provision of The Foreigners Act by entering Pakistan illegally and awarded five years’ imprisonment to each of the 17 accused.
The family, whose members included Enayat, Rafique, Zareena and Rajoo, had stayed in Karachi before trying attempting to leave the country with fake passports in 2012 when they were arrested from the Jinnah International Airport by officials of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
A case (FIR no 292/2012) had been registered against the suspects under sections 429, 461, 419/14 and other relevant provisions.
An assistant director at the FIA’s legal department, Anwar Adil, told the court that the accused had been arrested because they did not have any legal authentic documents to justify their settlement in Pakistan.
He argued that the country was battling terrorism and the large number of foreign settlers could be behind such activities and requested the court to punish the illegal immigrants.
The court heard the arguments and decided to award five-year jail term to each of the 17 convicts.

Two ‘terrorists’ remanded
An anti-terrorism court (ATC) sent an alleged terrorist and extortionist, Ayaz, to police custody on physical remand till March 12.
The suspect had been arrested on Sunday by the Sachal police and a case (FIR no 101/2015) was registered against him under Sections 386/34 of Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of Anti-Terrorism Act.
The investigation officer on Monday requested the court to grant him the suspect’s custody so that he may be interrogated.
Meanwhile, another anti-terrorism court sent another alleged terrorist, Abdullah, to the custody of Zaman Town police station on physical remand till March 15.
The suspect has been charged with the possession of explosive material with the intention of making bombs.

Arbab’s plea
The SHC directed the provincial law officer to file comments on a petition of former chief minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim seeking security during the upcoming Senate elections.
Rahim said in his petition that he wanted to cast his vote in the Senate elections, but he apprehended his arrest during his visit to the provincial assembly due to political rivalry with the ruling government party.
He asked the court to order the provision of protection for him so he could cast his vote, and to restrain police from arresting him in any false case.
The provincial law officer and the counsel for the assembly speaker sought time to file comments. The court, granting time, adjourned the hearing till March 4.