Notices issued over detention of octogenarian under FCR.

PESHAWAR, Oct 29: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday put on notice the federal interior secretary and Mohmand Agency’s political agent in a writ petition challenging detention of an 80-year-old man under the collective responsibility clause of the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR). 

A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan and Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel directed the respondents including the federal secretary interior and the political agent to clarify their position. 

The bench was hearing a writ petition filed by Mr Syed Iqbal Kazmi, a representative of Human Rights Commission of South Asia, who alleged that an old man, Wazir Khan, who is around 80, had been detained on the order of the Mohmand Agency’s political agent at Ghalanai lock-up under the collective responsibility clause of the FCR. 

The counsel claimed that he had received various letters from detainees imprisoned under the FCR following which he visited the lock-up at Ghalanai, the headquarters of Mohmand Agency.