Kudos to the lawyers who filed the habeas corpus application for Nasharuddin Nasir.

It is wonderful to see that persistence and focused attention to details and sound practical arguments have persuaded the Shah Alam High Court (Justice Suriyadi Halim Omar) to allow the ISA detainee access to counsel in order to give proper instructions.

The right to counsel should be a sacred and protected right where liberty of the person is at stake. This right has in the past been made second to police investigations and the interest of national security. Those days should be numbered.

It is heartening to see that the judiciary would not run roughshod over the rights of the detainee and would apply its mind in scrutinising and making an independent assessment of the reasons for the denial of basic rights of the ISA detainee.