IHC seeks report over IMC meeting

21 Sep, 2015

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court on Monday sought report regarding the expected meeting of the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) formed under the Ministry of Interior to examine the matter of Pakistani prisoners detained at Guantanamo Bay Jail.

The said Guantanamo Bay Jail was established by the United States and detained many persons belong to Afghan Taliban and others.

The division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Noorul Haq N Qureshi and Justice Aamer Farooq directed the standing counsel Khawaja Imtiaz to submit the report within two weeks.

The direction was made while hearing Intra Court Appeal (ICA) filed by Mohammad Shafi challenging June 18 order of the IHC's single bench which dismissed petition terming it non-maintainable.

During the course of proceedings, Khawaja Imtiaz apprised the bench that the government constituted the Inter-Ministerial Committee under Ministry of Interior in May 2014 to examine the issue and make recommendations but not a single meeting had been held so far.

The counsel informed the bench that a meeting of the IMC was expected to be held in near future and requested the court to grant time for obtaining details from the ministry about steps taken by the committee.

Accepting the request of the standing counsel, the bench granted two weeks time and adjourned the matter to a date in office.

Earlier, Mirza Shahzad, counsel for the petitioner, stated that Mohammad Ahmed Ghulam Rabbani, brother-in-law of Shafi was one of many prisoners allegedly picked up from Karachi in December 2001 and handed over to US authorities.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2015

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