KARACHI - The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday issued direction to the provincial home secretary to submit a report on a petition challenging detention of former Malir SSP Rao Anwar in Multan Lines in the Malir Cantonment.

A division bench headed by Chief Justice Ahmed Ali M Shaikh was hearing a plea filed by father of Naqeebullah Mehsud, South Waziristan native who was killed in a fake encounter allegedly by suspended Malir SSP Rao Anwar and his subordinates.

During the hearing, the CJ inquired the home secretary that under which law Rao Anwar house was declared as sub-jail, the court also asked that how many prisoners were given such facilities by the provincial government in the past.

The home secretary requested the court to give some more times to submit comments in this regard; the court allowed his request with the direction to file comments in the next hearing to be held on June 20. The court also warned that upon failure, it would decide the matter on the basis of record available with it.

Rao Anwar and his subordinates were booked for murdering Naqeebullah along with three others in a fake police encounter on January 13 in Shah Latif Town. Their trial is pending in an anti-terrorism court (ATC). Anwar was arrested on the orders of the Supreme Court on March 21.

Muhammad Khan has submitted in his plea that despite the order of the trial court to shift the main accused to prison, the home department issued a notification declaring his house as sub-jail, which is in violation of the trial court’s orders.

In his earlier arguments, Faisal Siddiqui advocate, counsel of the petitioner, had said that the home department issued the impugned notification with mala fide intention, as Anwar is the only under-trial prisoner of an ATC in Sindh whose own house has been declared a sub-jail, adding that such favoritism is against the jail’s rules and criminal procedure.

He said that the impugned notification fails to disclose any credible information regarding serious threats to Anwar’s life. He asked that if the suspended cop is facing a serious threat, why has he not been detained at a high-security detention centre or why has his security not been increased in jail like other high-profile prisoners.

He also said that Anwar’s detention in the comfort of his own home declared as a sub-jail is simply a continuation of the VVIP treatment being accorded to him. The counsel said there is clear evidence that Anwar is a thoroughly corrupt police officer, who has acquired assets beyond his known means and has engaged in money laundering, adding that a relevant complaint has been sent to the National Accountability Bureau.

He said that in view of Anwar’s involvement in the terrorism case, he has been suspended from his post and he cannot be given any kind of concession under the law.

He also said Anwar’s criminal character is obvious from the fact that he defied the court’s orders and according to a police report, he and his subordinates have been accused of carrying out 444 encounter killings over the past seven years.

Siddiqui requested that the SHC declare illegal the impugned notification of the home department with regard to Anwar’s confinement at his own house by declaring it a sub-jail.