PESHAWAR, March 26: A US national, Aaron Mark DeHaven, on Saturday moved the Peshawar High Court, pleading that a criminal case registered against him on the charge of illegal stay in Pakistan be quashed, as his visa was cancelled without assigning any reason and he was not intimated in this regard.Mr DeHaven filed a petition before the court, requesting that the FIR registered against him at the University Town Police Station be declared unlawful and without jurisdiction.

The petitioner was arrested by the local police on Feb 25 near the Falcon residential complex on the University Road where he resided. The FIR was registered against him under Section 14 of the Foreigners Act for alleged illegal stay in Pakistan.

The court of additional district and sessions judge had granted him bail on March 7 and he was released from the Peshawar prison the next day after depositing cash guarantee of Rs2 million.

In the petition, filed through Advocate Sardar Ali Raza, the petitioner stated that he had entered Pakistan on valid business visa, which was subsequently converted into a work visa by the Board of Investment (BoI) in the 84th meeting of the Visa Committee. He stated that the said decision was conveyed to him through a letter on Oct 29, 2008.

Mr DeHaven said that on the basis of this approval his visa was extended for a year on Oct 23, 2008 and subsequently up to Oct 23, 2010. He stated that initially he formed a single-member company, which was registered with the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan on June 2, 2008, and later on he formed another company, Catalyst Services (Pvt) Limited with two-member board of directors, including the petitioner andanother director named Michael Chang, who was also a US national.

The petitioner claimed that presently there were around 60 employees in the company, all of whom were Pakistanis, with combined payroll of $12,553. He said that the company also had active contracts for spring and summer quarters of 2011.

The petitioner stated that when he initiated the process for renewal of his visa he was intimated by the BoI on Nov 15, 2010, that his work visa had already been cancelled on March 29, 2010. He stated that the cancellation of that visa without assigning any reason and without informing him was illegal.

Meanwhile, the court of additional district and sessions judge, Azhar Ali Khan, on Saturday put on notice the accused in an appeal filed by the prosecution against order of a judicial magistrate for returning passport to Mr DeHaven.

The court of judicial magistrate, Shahid Khan, had on March 16 accepted an application of the accused and directed police to return his passport.

Later, the prosecution moved an appeal before the court of additional district and sessions judge requesting it to set aside the impugned order as the accused was a foreigner and there was likelihood that he would escape from the country.