KARACHI, April 14: The Sindh High Court allowed a petition questioning inclusion of a landowner’s name in the exit control list and directed the federal interior ministry to delete it.
Petitioner Khan Mohammad submitted that the interior ministry placed his name on the ECL in 2000 on the advice of the provincial home department. His counsel, Mohammad Ashraff Kazi, submitted that the petitioner was involved in certain cases registered in the early 1990s but all the cases had since been disposed of since by courts of law and he was no longer required in any case.
A division bench, comprising Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice Mrs Qaiser Iqbal, observed that the interior ministry should have given reason for putting the petitioner on the ECL instead of merely referring to the home department’s advice.
Meanwhile, another division bench, comprising Justices Ghulam Rabbani and Gulzar Ahmed, disposed of a woman’s petition against inclusion of her son’s name in the ECL when federal government standing counsel Ziauddin Nasir submitted that the name had since been omitted by the interior ministry.
Ms Bilquis Mirza submitted that the ministry had placed the name of her son, Dr Fawad H Mirza, a director of Mirza Sugar Mills Limited, on the ECL in 1997. The federal attorney said Fawad Mirza’s name had been removed from the ECL and the bench disposed of the petition in terms of the statement.
JAIL CUSTODY: Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, SHC administrative judge for Karachi’s anti-terrorism courts, remanded four accused in the army personnel hostage taking case to jail custody after expiry of their police remand on April 14. The judge asked the investigation officer to submit the charge-sheet against the accused in the anti-terrorism court concerned on April 21.
Nasrullah Mengal, Ghulam Haider Langah alias Chappar, Mehboob Ali Satti and Ghulam Qadir, private guards and driver of the BNP chief, were brought to the high court amid stringent security. Along with the ex-CM, who has been declared an absconding accused, and others, they had been charged with kidnapping Havildar Qurban Hussain and Lance Naik Faiyaz Ahmed from Darakhshan with intent to kill.
Complainant Qurban Hussain alleged in the FIR lodged by him at Darakhshan police station that they were kidnapped by the ex-CM’s men on April 5 while they were proceeding for their intelligence and surveillance duty.
They were kept hostage and tortured at the ex-CM’s residence in Defence for two hours during which Mr Mengal asked his men to kill them. They were released only when the law enforcement agencies surrounded Mr Mengal residence. The accused had been charged under Sections 186, 337, 342, 353, 364, 395 and 397 of the Pakistan Penal Code and Sections 6 and 7 of the Anti-Terrorist Act.
