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| Mengal under house arrest |
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Wednesday, November 29, 2006
QUETTA: The Hub administration on Tuesday put the Balochistan National Party (BNP-M) chief, Akhtar Mengal, under house arrest because of his attempts to create a law and order situation. He has been detained as a protective measure.
Tariq Butt adds from Islamabad: Opposition senators on Tuesday protested the house arrest of BNP-M chief and former chief minister Akhtar Mengal, meant to stop him from leading a long march against federal policies on the eve of President Pervez Musharraf’s visit to the province.
The issue generated a heat in the Upper House with the government side insisting that it was a provincial matter that could be agitated in the Balochistan High Court (BHC). Dr Babar Awan raised the matter and said it was a violation of the Constitution to restrict free movement of any citizen. He alleged Mengal’s house arrest was part of the ongoing atrocities against the opposition leaders and workers in Balochistan.
He charged that some 150 political workers and leaders have been detained in the past few weeks in the province as they had aired the idea of observing a strike during Musharraf’s visit to Balochistan on November 30. He said this was alarming as there was already restlessness and uncertainty prevailing in Balochistan.
Awan stressed that the Senate should be told that why, instead of following constitutional means and engaging them in talks, political people in Balochistan were being bulldozed? The house should be informed under which law and charges Mengal has been incarcerated, he demanded.
Dr Abdul Maalik said there were no charges against Mengal and he has been arrested just to block him from leading the long march. He said Mengal’s offence was his protest against the president when the latter visited Balochistan on November 16. Mengal has been detained in Sakrand rest house, he said.
Dr Khalid Ranjha’s intriguing remarks that several people were arrested by the administration on their own request and that all detentions were not coercive, provoked protest from certain thoroughbred politicians.
He said no court has ever sustained such a detention order. However, he said placing people under house arrest or other detentions was not good. Dr Safdar Abbasi took exception to Ranjha’s view and said that his insinuation that political leaders and workers were arrested on their own request was totally wrong and misleading. He said political workers had been resisting dictatorial policies for decades. He said the Senate was a sovereign house and could discuss Mengal’s arrest.
Abdur Rehim Mandokhel also termed Ranjha’s observation as an unfounded allegation that political leaders and workers go to prison voluntarily on request. However, Ranjha said he didn’t intend to insult anybody, and added that several political figures had undergone the rigours of politics. He said home secretaries could be summoned by the Senate with 15 years’ record about arrests and detentions to ascertain the veracity of his claim that many detentions had been voluntary.
Afgan said freedom of movement provided in the constitution was not without reasonable restrictions that can be imposed through law. He said restrictions can be enforced in public interest and the action taken against Mengal was under the law.
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briefs...
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