Whereabouts of Matiullah Jan's kidnappers: SC dismisses Islamabad Police report

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday, while dismissing the Islamabad police report to trace out the whereabouts of the kidnappers of Matiullah Jan, a senior journalist, expressed its concern over defective investigation carried out by the police.

The bench directed the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Islamabad, to himself supervise the investigation of the alleged kidnapping of Matiullah Jan, and to submit a report in four weeks.

Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed, while addressing the IGP, Islamabad, said stop the culture of writing letters to various departments to probe the kidnapping of Matiullah.

He said Islamabad police did not have the training required for investigating criminal cases, adding they were acting like "babus".

A three-judge special bench, headed by the chief justice, heard the suo motu pertaining to the alleged contemptuous tweet by Matiullah Jan.

The bench noted that the police report, except about writing of letters to various departments and agencies, contains nothing concrete.

According to the report submitted by the IGP, Islamabad, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) under the chairmanship of the DIG Operations was constituted to probe the matter and the police added Section 7ATA to the case.

Aabpara Police Station on the complaint of Matiullah's younger brother Shahid Abbasi had registered an FIR against unknown persons for kidnapping in the morning and releasing him late at night the same day The report said that the geo-fencing of the place of occurrence to trace out the culprits allegedly involved in the kidnapping of the journalist was still under process.

The Ministry of Defence was approached to ascertain the whereabouts of the alleged kidnapee from the IB, MI, and ISI, so that the investigation of the case could be conducted on merit. On 24 July 2020, the CCTV footage of the alleged suspects was also sent to the NADRA for matching and provision of information of suspects, which is still under process. The statement of school teacher, Ritaba Sehar, who was seen in the video, was also recorded under Section 161 CrPC. The bench directed the investigation officer to physically go to each department for collection of evidence. Go to the laboratory for collection of forensic report and the CDR. The chief justice said that in criminal cases time was of the essence, if that was wasted then all the evidence would be destroyed. Justice Ijazul Ahsan inquired what happened to the six-member committee to probe the kidnapping of the journalist.

"What is its performance?"

He said no report was filed on their investigation.

Attorney General for Pakistan Khalid Jawed said that he was also not satisfied with the police report.

Justice Ijaz inquired from Matiullah have you filed reply of the contempt notice.

He replied that the court had granted him two weeks for filing the reply through counsel.

He informed that he had recorded statement before the police.

Matiullah, however, sought more time to engage counsel.

Accepting his request, the bench adjourned the case for one month.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) has set up a six-member committee to probe the incident of kidnapping of Matiullah Jan from the high-security zone of Islamabad as well as to monitor the progress in police investigation.

The union has also decided to become a party in the Matiullah Jan contempt of court case to the extent of interpretation of Article 19 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

The six-member committee will be headed by Pakistan's senior most working journalist M Ziauddin with Munizae Jehangir, Nasir Malick, Fauzia Shahid, Asmatullah Niazi, and Asif Bashir Chaudhry as its members.

The chairman has also been authorised to set up any sub-committee, and, if required, include more members from the civil society.

The decision to form the committee follows the PFUJ's concern over the increasing frequency of such incidents.

The PFUJ reaffirmed its commitment to free speech and democracy in Pakistan and expressed its concern over the increasing pressure on the media houses and the unannounced censorship imposed on the media.