Sindh High Court repeated notices to federal Interior and Foreign ministries on a petition filed against the handing over of alleged Al-Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and his relatives to US authorities.

Marium, a sister of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, filed a fresh petition against the extradition of her brother, submitting that Khalid had been handed over to US authorities by intelligence agencies in an unlawful and unconstitutional manner.

She stated that her son Ammar alias Ali Abdul Aziz, who is stated to be an alleged financer of Al-Qaeda; two sons-in-law Abdul Basit alias Ramzi Yousuf and Abdul Qadir were also handed over to US authorities by intelligence agencies after US invasion of Afghanistan.

Besides, her nephew Abdul Karim Mehmood alias Abu Moosab Arochi and another relative Abu Hashim were picked up by LEAs after US invasion on Afghanistan on the suspicion of their links with Al-Qa’eda.

Her counsel Ghulam Qadir Jatoi submitted that the detainees were handed over to US authorities against the basic provisions of law, as the Constitution guarantees life and liberty to all the citizens of Pakistan. He said that the US authorities were falsely implicating Khalid Sheikh for masterminding September 11 attacks in US and other terrorism activities.

Making federal Interior and Foreign ministries, and directors general ISI and IB as respondents, the counsel prayed the court to direct the federal government to take steps for the return of detainees by declaring their arrest and their handing over to US authorities as illegal. The court was also prayed to direct the respondents to procure the custody of the detainees by approaching the government concerned officially or through United Nations and order their production before this court.

SHC’s division bench comprising Chief Justice Mohammad Afzal Soomro and Justice Abdul Rehman Farooq Pirzada repeated notices to federal Interior and Foreign ministries and other respondents for their comments.

Earlier, the SHC had disposed of a petition regarding the extradition of Khalid Sheikh and detention of his other relatives, observing that the petition became infructuous as the detainee had been detained out of the court’s jurisdiction while other detainees were not in the custody of federal or provincial LEAs. The court, however, held that the petitioner was at liberty to file fresh petition in accordance with the relevant law to seek legal remedy as may be available to her.