Pakistani held at Guantanamo Bay: IHC reserves judgement over maintainability of petition

Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday reserved Judgment over maintainability of a petition filed by a relative on behalf of a Pakistani prisoner held at Guantanamo Bay. Justice Athar Minallah of IHC took up the case in which the petitioner, through his counsel, argued that former President Pervez Musharraf had admitted in his book that he had handed over 369 Pakistanis to the US government and his brother-in-law Mohammad Ahmed Ghulam Rabbani was one of them.
Ghulam Rabbani was picked up by Pakistani intelligence officials in December 2001, kept in illegal detention in Karachi, flown to Islamabad in January 2002 and handed over to the US authorities without any charge or right to defence a month after he married in 2001, the petitioner contended.
The petitioner requested the court to order the respondents - the ministries of interior, defence and foreign affairs - to make immediate arrangements to repatriate Rabbani. After five years, the family was informed that he was under custody of the Americans. The petitioner requested the court to direct the government to take up the issue with the US authorities under the Vienna Convention on consular relations and the Geneva Conventions.