ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday clubbed together the case of Arif Gull and the matter concerning the status of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Action in Aid of Civil Powers Ordinance 2019 after the KP government produced before it the person detained at an internment centre in Kohat since 2019.

On Monday, a three-judge SC bench, headed by Chief Justice (CJP) Gulzar Ahmed, had warned that it would not hesitate to summon Prime Minister Imran Khan if Arif Gull was not produced before the court.

Consequently, 21-year-old Gull, who belongs to Mohmand tribe, was produced on Tuesday before the SC bench comprising CJP Gulzar, Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan and Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed. Later he was taken out of the court premises surrounded by law enforcement personnel.

Bench clubs together his case and a challenge to KP ordinance of 2019

The bench, which had taken up the case on Monday, consisted of the CJP, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhel and Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar.

Arif Gull is facing a charge of attacking the check-post of a security force at Kandau, a town near the border with Afghanistan, in 2019. His relative Ala Mohammad later told Dawn that Gull was picked up by security personnel from a local hotel.

In its order, the apex court said that since the internee had been produced before it, his case should be clubbed together with another case pending adjudication before a larger bench of the apex court. The court ordered the authorities to ensure the safety of the internee and allow his meeting with his father Ziarat Gull and grandfather Sultan Mohammad in accordance with the law.

During the hearing, Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Khalid Jawed Khan invited the attention of the Supreme Court to the fact that initially a habeas corpus petition was filed in the Peshawar High Court (PHC), but the matter was disposed of because the purpose had been served after the individual was identified and his family members were allowed to meet him.

He said that since a larger issue had been pending before a larger bench of the apex court, it would be better if the present case was clubbed with the matter pending before it.

Justice Qazi Amin Ahmed observed that the interned person was entitled to the process of law, counselling and access to a counsel of his choice; the cases of interned persons were also subject to the oversight of the review board of the Supreme Court.

Additional Attorney General Sajid Ilays Bhatti and Advocate General for KP Shumail Butt told the court that the internee had been provided vocational training and had also undergone counselling.

The larger issue pending before a five-judge SC bench concerns a joint challenge to the KP Action in Aid of Civil Powers Ordinance 2019 by PPP stalwart Farhatullah Babar and rights activists Afrasiab Khattak, Bushra Gohar and Rubina Saigol. In addition to the petition, the larger bench is seized with an appeal by the federal government against the Peshawar High Court’s Oct 17, 2018, order declaring the ordinance as ultra vires and also terming illegal the continuation of laws in erstwhile Pata and Fata.

At the last hearing in 2019, the Supreme Court had asked the federal government to furnish a report detailing cases of individuals detained at seven internment centres which were referred to the review boards for extending their detention or sending to the relevant courts for final decisions.

“The entire case will go away if the court is convinced that the fundamental right will apply to the persons detained at the internment centres,” then CJP Asif Saeed Khosa had observed.

Then AGP Anwar Mansoor had conceded before the Supreme Court that the Action in Aid of Civil Powers Regulations 2011, which was the only law in the field governing the functioning of internment centres, suffered with the defect of not specifying any detention period.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2022