The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday sent notices to the NWFP home secretary and the Dera Ismail Khan (DI Khan) prison superintendent in a habeas corpus writ petition challenging the detention of former chief of Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM), Maulana Sufi Muhammad.A division bench comprising PHC Chief Justice Tariq Pervez Khan and Justice Muhammad Qaim Jan Khan asked both respondents to furnish their comments in the case at the next hearing.
The petition was filed by the son of TNSM chief, Fazlullah, through Abdul Latif Afridi. The petitioner, Fazlullah, is not the one who is heading the insurgency in Swat. Maulana Fazlullah, whose followers killed dozens in clashes with troops during the weekend in Swat, is the son-in-law of Sufi Muhammad.
The petitioner said his father was arrested in the Kurram Agency in February 2001, along with 28 of his comrades. They were all tried by the Kurram Agency assistant political agent and were convicted and sentenced to various terms of imprisonment against which an appeal was moved before the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) commissioner. The appeal was, however, rejected in 2007.
He added that in light of a PHC verdict on May 12, 2004, the FCR Tribunal modified the sentences of all 28 petitioners, which subsequently led to the release of all except Maulana Sufi Muhammad.
He said the detained person had never been produced before any court since his arrest, adding, “Obviously, his detention is illegal as no judicial sanction exists to support and justify the detention.”
He said the petitioner had learnt that the modified sentences as per the orders of the FCR Tribunal had not been communicated to the prisoners, nor had any arrest warrant from any court ever been served on the inmates. He added that Sufi had not been produced before any court.
Advocate Afridi added that Sufi, almost 75 years old, was suffering from hypertension and diabetes and was entitled to remission under the presidential ordinance for elderly prisoners. The outlawed TNSM chief is presently imprisoned in the DI Khan Prison.