ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court clubbed Arif Gul’s grandfather’s petition with the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government’s appeal on Action in Aid of Civil Power.

A three-judge bench headed by the Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed, on Tuesday, heard Sultan Muhammad’s habeas corpus petition regarding detention of his grandson, Arif Gul, who had been in the Kohat Internment Centre since 2019.

At the onset of the hearing, Advocate General KP informed that Gul is available in the court. The chief justice in Urdu asked from him why the authorities had arrested him.

The AG informed the chief justice that the internee does not understand Urdu and can speak only in Pashtu. He then translated Gul’s statement for the bench members in Urdu.

According to Gul, he was working in a hotel and the authorities arrested him on the complaint of someone. Additional Attorney General Sajid Illyas informed that Gul is facing an allegation of attacking the checkpost of a security force at Kandau, near the border with Afghanistan, in 2019 and since then he has been under detention at the Kohat internment centre.

The chief justice then questioned whether a person could be kept in internment center without trial. The Attorney General for Pakistan, Khalid Jawed, who was also present in the court, informed that the case related to legality of internment centers is already pending before the apex court.

He then requested the bench to club this petition with the KP appeal on Action in Aid of Civil Power. The case was adjourned for an indefinite period.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022