KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Monday once again directed the home secretary, the provincial chiefs of Rangers and police, and the city commissioner to file their replies on a petition challenging the detention of a Muttahida Qaumi MovementLondon leader under the Maintenance of Public Order.A two-judge bench headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto granted the application of the petitioner`s counsel for urgent hearing and put off the hearing to Nov 4.

Earlier, the court had fixed Nov 9 for the hearing.

The petition seeking release of MQM leader Kunwar Khalid Younus was filed by his wife, Naz Khalid, who asked the court to declare the detention of her spouse illegal and order his release.The woman submitted in her petition that the Rangers personnel had arrested her spouse with other MQM leaders outside the Karachi Press Club on Oct 21when they were going to address a press conference.

Later, she said, she came to know through the media that her husband and other MQM leaders were detained under the MPO.

The petitioner stated that there were no criminal charges against Kunwar Khalid, who had been amember of the National Assembly.

She apprehended that her spouse would be implicated in fictitious criminal cases.

She stated that her husband, an elderly person, was suffering from various diseases and needed medicines on a regular basis.

The petitioner said she and other family members were not being allowed to see him in prison.

She said the detention order was illegal and unconstitutional andagainst the principle of natural justice.

`The law enforcement agencies are bound to treat every citizen equally but they are overriding certain provisions of the Constitution which guarantee protection of lives of all citizens, freedom of speech and freedom of movement,` she said in the petition.

The petitioner asked the court to declare the detention of her husband illegal and order his release.