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Published 01 Nov, 2008 12:00am

Petition on Dr Khan’s detention dismissed

ISLAMABAD, Oct 31: The Islamabad High Court dismissed on Friday a petition about Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan’s alleged illegal detention, observing that the court had already decided the matter.

The single-judge bench of Chief Justice Sardar Mohammad Aslam also ruled that the Supreme Court’s decision in the case about Dr Khan’s alleged detention had clearly stated that only his wife or close relatives could file a plea if they had any grievance and Barrister M. Javed Jafferi, as a petitioner, had no authority to further interpret the apex court verdict.

“You have accepted IHC’s decision on the main petition … Subsequent review petitions were dismissed on the subject of maintainability, now stop further litigation on the issue,” the chief justice said.

He regretted that Dr Khan in his interviews to the media had been expressing his lack of confidence in courts.

“Why is he shy of filing pleas himself … He should have filed a plea if he wanted provision of pre-February, 2004, security arrangements.”

Regarding Mr Jafferi’s plea about restrictions on visitors, the chief justice observed that the scientist was getting medical treatment of his choice and he was being “taken to dinners” wherever he wanted.

He said that he had asked the lawyer to submit to the court a list of people who wanted to meet Dr Khan, but the list had not been submitted.

Mr Jafferi had requested the court to ask the government to inform the court under which law Dr Khan had been incarcerated.

He told the court that the ministry of interior had informed him that Dr Khan had been detained on verbal orders of former president Pervez Musharraf.

He said that even Mehmood Ahmed, a retired general, had been denied access to Dr Khan.

The chief justice also declined to entertain a plea about Dr Aafia’s alleged extradition to the US.

He said that if Mr Jafferi wanted to present his argument he should wait for the hearing of the main petition in Dr Aafia’s case.

In a new application, Mr Jafferi sought the assistance of chairman of the Senate’s functional committee on human rights S.M. Zafar.—APP

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