ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday asked the sector commanders of intelligence agencies to appear before the court on Wednesday (today) if the authorities failed to produce a missing person.
A single bench of Chief Justice Athar Minallah issued the directive while hearing a petition filed for the recovery of a missing person, who was allegedly abducted from the federal capital on August 22.
The petitioner, Zulfiqar Ali, said his 27-year-old son, Haseeb Hamza, was a farmer and was working in Layyah.
The IHC bench stated in its order that the court is confident that the state and the functionaries identified in the aforementioned judgement will trace the whereabouts of the petitioner’s son and produce him at 11:30 am on Wednesday (today) before the court.
Justice Minallah noted, “In case the petitioner’s son is not produced nor his whereabouts are traced then the Chief Commissioner, Inspector General of Police (IGP), Islamabad Capital Territory, Sector Commanders of Special Branch, Intelligence Bureau, Inter-Services Intelligence and the Military Intelligence will appear in person on 14.09.2022 at 11:30 am.” The IGP was directed to convey the Court’s order to the officials.
During the hearing, IGP Islamabad appeared before the court and stated that the criminal case was registered on 12.09.2022. However, the bench said that he was not able to explain why the case was registered after a considerable delay because the alleged abduction had taken place on the night of 22.08.2022.
Then, the bench drew the attention of the Inspector General of Police to paragraph 31 of the judgment of the IHC passed in WP No2974 of 2016 titled, “Mahera Sajid vs Station House Officer, Shalimar”, wherein the State functionaries have been identified who would be held accountable when the alleged abduction is, prima facie, in the nature of “enforced disappearance”.
The petitioner’s counsel informed the bench that the abducted person was picked up from their family residence on the midnight of August 22 and 23, where about 20 people – 15 of them in black uniform – raided without any search warrant. During the search, they apprehended the petitioner’s son and seized several items, including five laptops, six cell-phones and some documents. He submitted an application to the police to register an FIR, but they did not. He added that the police claimed that Haseeb was with the agencies.
The bench after issuing the directions deferred the hearing until today (Wednesday).
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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