PESHAWAR: A single-member Peshawar High Court bench has disposed of a widow’s habeas corpus petition against the alleged illegal detention of her four sons and their driver for over five years, as all government agencies denied their arrest.

Chief Justice Qaiser Rashid was informed by an officer of the provincial home department that the five people in question were neither held by any of the agencies functioning under the federal and provincial governments nor were they kept at any internment centre.

The bench observed that the petitioner, Jan Pari, would be at liberty to approach the appropriate forum for the redressal of her grievances.

Moving scenes were witnessed in the courtroom when the old woman in choked voice said at least the state should inform her whether her sons were dead or alive. She said the certificates of those men’s death should be issued so that their wives could be declared widows to marry again.

Govt agencies deny arrest of four brothers, their driver

The woman was accompanied by wives of the ‘missing’ persons and their minor children.

She wondered where she and family should go to ease their misery.

The petitioner claimed that she was a resident of Gulabad village in Surdehri area of Charssada district and a police party headed by an SHO along with members of security forces raided her house on July 14, 2016.

She alleged that her sons, including Aleem Khan, Saeedullah, Hakeemullah and Fazal Malik, along with their driver Shams were taken away by the raiding officials.

She claimed that the SHO first told her that all five men would be freed after few days but later said only two of them would be freed.

The woman, however, claimed that none of the detainees was freed and their whereabouts were not known.

She had later filed an application with the high court’s human rights cell in July 2020.

It was later converted into a habeas corpus petition.

The petitioner claimed that her sons were innocent and were never involved in any crime. She had requested the court to order the law-enforcement agencies to produce the alleged detainees before the court.

On the directions of the court, lawyer Shabbir Hussain Gigyani represented the woman in the case.

Additional advocates general Qaiser Ali Shah and Barrister Qasim Wadood appeared for the government, whereas official of the home department Fazal Qayyum Khattak, who is the focal person in missing person cases, also turned up.

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2021