KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Thursday 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 Movement-London leader under the Maintenance of Public Order.

The petition seeking release of MQM leader Kunwar Khalid Younus was filed by his wife, Naz Khalid, who pleaded to the court to declare the detention of her spouse illegal and order his release.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto directed the petitioner`s counsel to place on record the copy of the deten-tion order by the next date of hearing on Nov 9.

The woman submitted in her petition that the Rangers personnel had arrested her spouse along with other MQM leaders outside the Karachi Press Club on Oct 21 when 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 a member 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 medi-cines on regular basis.

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

She said that the detention order was illegal and unconstitutional and against 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.

She further asked the court to direct the jail authorities to allow relatives of the detainee to meet him in prison.