The Sindh High Court (SHC) directed the home secretary and the inspector general of police on Friday to submit their comments on a constitutional petition filed by Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi (MQM-H) chief Afaq Ahmed against his possible arrest on release from jail.
The SHC division, comprising Justice Maqbool Baqar and Justice Ghulam Sarwar Korai, also ordered the officials to produce the complete record of cases registered against Afaq during his detention in Karachi Central Prison. The MQM-H chief had filed the petition through his counsels Ilyas Khan and Khurram Masood, submitting that several cases have been registered against him but none of the charges were proved during trial.
His counsels argued that whenever their client was acquitted from a charge, some new cases were registered against him by the police to keep him in detention. They suspected that despite his bail plea being granted by the court, Afaq may again be booked on some other charges and not allowed to come out from the prison. The petitioner had submitted that the high court, by setting aside a lower court’s order of life imprisonment, had granted his bail plea.
After hearing arguments from the petitioner’s side, the court issued notices to the respondents and directed them to submit their comments by June 22. In another criminal revision application filed on behalf of Afaq, the SHC single bench comprising Justice Ahmed Ali Shaikh issued notice to complainant Shehzad in a murder case against Afaq registered within the remits of Nabi Bux police station in 2009.
Shehzad had stated in the FIR that he was on his way home with his friend Junaid when Asim and Talat opened fire at them. The complainant and his friend were wounded while a passerby identified as Ateeq Rehman was killed on the spot. It was alleged that the accused had done this on directions from Afaq. The MQM-H chief’s counsel argued that this case was politically motivated as his client was detained at the Karachi Central Prison at the time of the incident.