PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Thursday directed the federal government to produce the conviction order for an imprisoned Indian national, Hamid Nehal Ansari, by a military court and records of his case.

Chief Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Younas Taheem directed deputy attorney general Musaratullah Khan to ensure the production of the said record and judgment of the military court from the defence ministry.

The bench also directed additional advocate general Waqar Ahmad Khan to produce the jail warrant of the prisoner over which he has been kept in Mardan district prison.

Hamid Nehal insists he’s neither Indian agent nor is he part of any anti-Pakistan group

The court was hearing a petition filed by Hamid Nehal Ansari seeking remission in his three-year prison term since his conviction by a military court in Dec 2015.

The petitioner has challenged the mentioning of the words ‘anti-state activities’ on his jail warrants, saying neither he was involved in any anti-state activities nor was he convicted by the military court for that offence.

He prayed the court that appropriate order and direction be issued to the defence secretary to amend the jail warrant and substitute the word ‘anti-state activities’ with ‘illegal activities’.

The petitioner also sought the court’s orders for the Mardan prison authorities to allow due remission to him with effect from Dec 15, 2015, when he was convicted, and work out the date of his release after allowing remission.

Qazi Mohammad Anwar, lawyer for the petitioner, said his client was neither an Indian agent nor had he any connection with any group working against Pakistan.

He added that his client had committed a mistake by crossing the border into Pakistan without valid documents and having a fake identity card.

Qazi Anwar said the petitioner had gone missing after he was taken into custody by intelligence agencies and local police in Kohat district in Nov 2012 and that in reply to a habeas corpus petition filed by his mother Fauzia Ansari, the high court was informed on Jan 13, 2016, that he was in the custody of Pakistan Army and was being tried by a military court.

He added that in Feb 2016, it surfaced that the petitioner was convicted by a military court and was sentenced to three years imprisonment and was shifted to Peshawar central prison and that he was later shifted to Mardan district prison.

The petitioner, a 31-year-old MBA degree holder, was a teacher at the Mumbai Management College.

The counsel said the petitioner had left India for Afghanistan on Nov 4, 2012, on a valid tourist visa and that he had left Jalalabad for Peshawar on Nov 12, 2012 and entered Pakistan with a fake identity card in the name of Hamza sent to him by his Facebook friend from Karak, with whom he stayed in Karak for two days.

He added that on Nov 14, 2012, the petitioner’s friend left him at a hotel in Kohat before he was arrested. The counsel claimed that the story established during his trial before the military court was that petitioner had developed contacts with a woman of Kohat on Facebook who invited him to Kohat and that it was on her invitation that he came to Kohat.

Published in Dawn, December 8th, 2017