PESHAWAR: A local court on Saturday ordered the immediate release of three Afghan students after dismissing the charge of illegal stay against them.

Judicial magistrate Salman Riayat issued the orders after hearing the counsel for students Abdullah, Rahimullah and Imdadullah and the state prosecutor.

The Afghan students were arrested a day ago by officials of the University Town police station and were charged under Section 14 of the Foreigners Act with staying in the country without valid documents.

As they were produced before the magistrate, their lawyer, Imad Khalil, contended that his clients studied in the Islamia College Peshawar and lived in the province lawfully.

Dismisses illegal stay charge against them

He argued that the students were awarded scholarship by the Higher Education Commission and were having all the valid documents required for staying in Pakistan.

The counsel pointed out that the local police had launched a crackdown on Afghan nationals celebrating their country’s Independence Day on Aug 19 and arrested the three students.

He said celebrating national day of a country here was not a crime unless the participants created disturbance and damaged public property.

Mr Khalil said Afghan students were peaceful and didn’t carry out any illegal activity. He requested the court that instead of conducting further proceedings in the case the students should be discharged of the allegations levelled against them as no crime had taken place.

He said keeping them behind the bars would be an injustice to them.

ACQUITTAL PLEA: Former secretary of the housing department Zakiullah Khan and his brother and former additional inspector general of police Zafarullah Khan have filed an application with an accountability court seeking their acquittal in the light of recent amendments made in the accountability law in a reference accusing them of possessing illegal assets.

Judge Haq Nawaz fixed Sept 2 for hearing the application.

The application was filed by advocate Qazi Jawad Ahsanullah on behalf of the two accused persons under Section 265-K of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which empowers the trial court to acquit an accused before conclusion of the trial if there is no likelihood of their conviction on the basis of available evidence.

The two brothers were arrested by the National Accountability Bureau in 2016 on the charge of possessing around Rs150 million worth of assets ‘disproportionate’ to the known sources of their income.

The applicants contended that the National Accountability (Second Amendment) Act 2022 was recently enacted and published in official Gazette on Aug 16.

They said that Act led to several amendments to the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999.

The applicants contended that amendment was also made to Section 5 of the ordinance providing that the law would be related to offences, including properties of the value not less than Rs500 million.

They pointed out that in light of those amendments, the accountability court no longer had the jurisdiction to deal with the case.

The applicants also said that the evidence available on record had so far not connected with the commission of the offence and they were entitled to be acquitted under Section 265-K of the CrPC.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2022