A three-member bench headed by chief justice-designate Justice Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui repeatedly asked the attorney general how Sethi, arrested by the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) on May 8, can be detained and an investigation against him started even before the government could file a formal complaint against him for his alleged anti-state activities.

One of the judges, Justice Mamoon Qazi, observed that the ISI after so many days of investigation, apparently could not find anything against Sethi and handed him over to the civilian authorities.

``The federal government has not yet decided that the person will be charged under which section and yet police officercan get him arrested and prosecute. It does not fit in the scheme of things,'' Siddiqui observed during the course of arguments for granting interim bail to Sethi on a habeas corpus petition filed by his wife, Jugnu Mohsin.

As the court ran out of time, it decided to settle the bail issue tomorrow.

Earlier, the government once again changed its strategy and instead of producing Sethi before a magistrate at the Islamabad district court, as promised by the attorney general Choudhury Muhammad Farooq before the apex court yesterday, the editor was produced before the special anti-terrorist court in Rawalpindi which remanded him to seven-day police remand.

Farooq informed the apex court that Sethi was produced before the special court under suppression of terrorist activities after he was medically examined this morning.

Sethi's wife, however, later alleged that the authorities violated the apex court's order as the police took his from the ISI in the morning to the anti-terrorist court inRawalpindi.

The authorities apparently wanted to prevent Sethi from speaking to the media which was out in full force at the Islamabad district court since morning.

The attorney general also informed the supreme court that a formal arrest warrant against Sethi was obtained from a judicial magistrate earlier in the day and then he was produced before the anti-terrorist court.

Sethi is now being prosecuted on the basis of an FIR filed against him at a Islamabad police station on May 29 by a ruling Pakistan Muslim League lawmaker under various sections dealing with punishments for condemnation of the creation of Pakistan, sedition, promoting enmity between different groups and also anti-state activities.