KARACHI, Nov 10 The Sindh High Court on Wednesday put the federal interior secretary, chiefs of ISI and Intelligence Bureau, home secretary, provincial and city police chiefs and others on notice in a petition seeking the whereabouts of an officer of the Gwadar Development Authority.

A division bench headed by Justice Gulzar Ahmed also issued notices to the deputy attorney general and the Sindh advocate general with direction to them and other respondents to file comments with supportive affidavits before the next date of hearing.

Petitioner Abid Ali, represented by Advocate Akhtar Hussain, approached the court against the arrest of his brother, Mohammed Arif, assistant environment officer of GDA, from his Karachi residence.

He submitted in his petition that the personnel of intelligence agencies along with the police raided his brother's residence, abused the women and took away Arif after blindfolding him after midnight on Oct 31.

The petitioner stated that he approached the Soldier Bazaar police and later the Jamshed Quarter police to know the whereabouts of his brother, but to no avail.

He apprehended that his brother had been taken into custody either by IB or ISI or any other secret agency as the local police did not cooperate with him and disclose his brother's whereabouts.

The petitioner stated that his brother had met an accident in Balochistan in August and was under medical treatment in Karachi on the recommendation of a medical officer of the Balochistan government.

He prayed to the court to direct the respondents to produce the detainee in court and refrain from registering any case against him. The court adjourned the hearing to Nov 26.

Daughter's custody

Meanwhile, the SHC adjourned the hearing of a petition of a convert woman, who sought the custody of her minor daughter from her husband.

A division bench headed by Chief Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany fixed Nov 15 for the next hearing with the consent of the counsel for the petitioner and her estranged husband, both seeking time to work out an amicable settlement between their clients.

Petitioner Aisha, who was earlier Magdalene Michelle DeSouza, mother of a three-year-old girl, submitted in her petition that she was married to Corel John DeSouza in Aug 2006 under Christian law.

She stated that she left her husband's house after she embraced Islam on Aug 13, 2010 as her marriage automatically stood dissolved with her conversion.

The petitioner, represented by Advocate Mohammed Ishaque Memon, said that she then started living with her maternal aunt, Tahira Shah, wife of Mumtaz Shah, who had also embraced Islam some 15 years ago.

She said that her former husband had her services as retail coordinator with a commercial bank terminated when she was on 15-day leave.

She said that her husband and his other relatives forced her to convert back to Christianity and snatched her daughter on Sept 5, 2010 when she went to see her sister, Angelique, in Punjab Colony.

She prayed to the court to order the authorities to place her former husband on the exit control list as she apprehended that he might take their daughter abroad. The petitioner also prayed to the court to hand over the custody of her daughter.

On Wednesday, the bench ordered that the minor would remain in the custody of her mother till the next date of hearing and her father would have the right to meet her every day for two weeks.

Cars for judiciary

The SHC directed the provincial finance secretary to depute an authorised representative to be present in court along with a complete record of the funds allocated for purchasing cars for the district judiciary.

A division bench headed by Chief Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany was seized with hearing of seeking facilities for the judges and staff of the high court and subordinate judiciary.

The SHC finance department member had filed a reference on May 4, 2010 submitting that several issues relating to the facilities for the judges and staff of the high court and district courts had been pending for a long time and the provincial authorities were not paying any heed to resolve them.

The chief justice on May 5 converted the reference into a constitutional petition and put the chief secretary, the provincial law secretary and the special finance secretary on notice.

He submitted that provision of 325 cars for senior civil judges and civil judges was approved in the 2008-09 budget and 223 of the vehicles were released while 102 could not be released due to a shortage of Rs1 million.

On Wednesday, the court was informed that the funds to the tune of Rs84.048 million, already allocated for the purpose in the current financial year, were not being released.

The bench in its order said “In the circumstances, we would issue notice to the Secretary Finance, Government of Sindh, to depute his authorized representative to be present in court on the next date along with compete record”.

The hearing was adjourned to Nov 16.