SHC issues notice to DG Rangers over plea by Dr Asim’s wife

Karachi
The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday issued notices to the deputy attorney general and director-general of Rangers in the province on a petition filed by the family of former federal minister Dr Asim Hussain for shifting him to a hospital for medical treatment.
Dr Asim had been arrested by the Rangers on August 26 when he was chairing a meeting of the Sindh Higher Education Commission as its chairman. He was produced in an anti-terrorism court which remanded him to Rangers custody for 90 days so he could be interrogated about his alleged involvement in financing terror groups, China cutting and other major scandals of corruption.
Dr Asim’s spouse, Dr Zarina Hussain, had filed an application before the Chief Justice of Sindh High Court, Justice Faisal Arab, requesting the provision of medical facilities to her husband following his preventive detention order by the anti terrorism court.
The SHC chief justice converted the application into a petition.
Dr Zarina pleaded that Dr Asim suffered from serious ailments and required medical attention so he should be admitted in a hospital. However, the matter could not be heard on Monday since the lawyers boycotted courts to protests against the killing of Advocate Amir Hyder Shah two days earlier.
Hence, the court repeated its notice to DG Rangers and deputy attorney general before adjourning the hearing till September 2.
On the previous hearing, the court had directed the DG Rangers to provide medical facilities to Dr Asim as per law besides asking the applicant’s counsel to ensure to satisfy the court on maintainability of the petition, in a situation where the detainee had already been remanded to the Rangers custody by the anti terrorism court.