ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) while accepting a plea seeking release of Ghulam Ahmad, a Pakistani national detained in the Guantanamo Bay, adjourned the hearing till June 28.
The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is a US military prison located within the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. On behalf of the petitioner, Barrister Mirza Shahzad Akbar appeared before the court when Justice Amir Farooq and Justice Mian Gul Hassan Aurangzeb took up the case for hearing on Monday.
The lawyer said that the case was still pending and the court should conduct the hearing of the case regularly. The court remarked that they fully realise the delay. The court later postponed the case till June 28. The petition said that the government should seek access to the citizen under the Vienna Convention and make arrangements for providing access of the counsel to the detainee.
The petition also sought action against former president Pervez Musharraf who was alleged to hand over the citizen to the US. Ghulam Ahmad – a resident of Karachi who was arrested by the security agencies in 2001 – was later handed over to the US. Initially, he was shifted to Bagram jail in Afghanistan and then to the Guantanamo Bay by the US.