PHC seeks reply from Home & Tribal Affairs Dept over missing student

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has sought reply from the secretary Home and Tribal Affairs Department Khyber Pakhtunkhwa over the alleged missing of a student after his release from the Central Prison Peshawar on bail on terrorism charges.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Nisar Hussain Khan and Justice Roohul Amin Khan issued the notice to secretary Home and Tribal Affairs to submit reply and explain as how the citizen was picked up from outside the prison when he had been released by the prison authorities.

Professor Hafiz Howaish, a resident of Swabi, had filed habeas corpus petition through his lawyer Mukhtiar Ahmad Maneri for the safe recovery of his son Israr Ahmad. He was an MPhil student of Physics and went missing after release from the prison. He was facing terrorism charges.

The petitioner’s lawyer submitted before the court that the petitioner waited from morning till evening outside the prison to receive his son from the prison, but he did not come out of the prison.

During the hearing, Central Prison Peshawar Superintendent Masoodur Rehman produced the prison’s record before the bench. As per the record, the missing student had been released.

About the arrest of the student, the lawyer submitted that the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) had arrested him and claimed that the police had recovered a hand grenade and arms from his possession. However, he said due to lack of evidence the Anti-Terrorism Court issued his release order on bail.

The lawyer said when the father went for receiving his son after his bail in the charges, the prison police told him that the CTD Mardan police had taken him from outside the prison when he was released. He said that the Anti-Terrorism Court again ordered his release on bail after the police failed to provide evidence about his son’s involvement in terrorism cases.

who resort to torture on their daughters, wives and women of their homes. ‘Islam has categorically defined rights of husband with rights of wife and any group or organisation can not be allowed to deprive women with rights that Islam has allowed them, said Hafiz Tahir Ashrafi.

PUC Vice Chairman Maulana Ayub Safdar, speaking on this occasion, said that Punjab Government has itself created controversies regarding ‘Women Protection Act’ by not taking on board religious leadership and by not making consultation with political leadership of the country. “We will endorse every measure of the government to make an end to violence against women and to ensure  protection and rights of women, but some sections of ‘Women Protection Actl’ will sabotage family system of the country,” said Maulana Ayub Safdar, adding that the Punjab Government should initiate concrete steps to make an end to dowry practices from the country.

Maulana Shafi Qasmi, Maulana Muhammad Mushtaq Lahori, Maulana Hussein Azad, Maulana Hussein Azad, Maualana Abdul Qayyum, Umm-e-Hamza, Umm-e-Tayyab and other women wing office bearers of Pakistan Ulema Council Women Wing were also present on this occassion.