The hearing of constitutional petition filed by the wives of Dr Akmal Waheed and Arshad Waheed was put off on Wednesday till December 9 by a division bench of High Court of Sindh (SHC) comprising Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Justice Amir Hani Muslim.
When the matter came up for hearing, Justic Amir Hani Muslim, who is also the Administrative Judge of Anti-Terrorism Courts for Karachi, refused to hear the petition as he is also the AJ of the Anti-Terrorism Courts.
After he endorsed 'Not Before Me', the hearing was put off till Thursday morning when it will be fixed before another division bench.
The petition was filed by Dr Fauzia Akmal and Dr Faraza Naz challenging the order of detention passed by Sindh Home Department under Section 11-EEE of Anti-Terrorism Act.
The petitioners say that the detention order was passed after their spouses were granted bail by Anti-Terrorism Appellate Bench of SHC in a special case pending trial before Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC-II).
They said that their husbands were first taken into custody on 17-6-2004 while their arrest was formally shown on 2-7-2004 in FIR 165.2004 registered by Boat Basin police station (attacking convoy of Corps Commander, 5 Corps, Karachi, and attack on Rangers' mobile stationed at Baloch Colony Flyover).
They accused were later exonerated from these incidents for want of evidence and were booked in a third and instant case by Gulshan-e-Iqbal police under section 201, 212, 216 of P.P.C and section 11 (N), 21 (C), (3) of ATC Act 1997, accusing them of harbouring, treating terrorists injured in different terrorist attacks, being members of terrorist organisation namely 'Jund-Allah', financial support to them etc.
If proved, all charges carry capital punishment. The petitioners were represented by M. Ilyas Khan, Shaukat Hayat and Mohammad Farooq, Advocates.