Production of Mashwani’s brothers: IHC provides another chance to federation

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC), on Thursday, provided another opportunity to the federation to produce missing brothers of social media activist Azhar Mashwani.

The IHC bench also asked the Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) to hold meeting with the prime minister “for a policy decision in the matter and to address the question as to the measures to be taken against the persons in the service of Pakistan who violate Articles 4, 9 and 10 of the Constitution by detaining citizens of Pakistan without the authority of law.”

A single bench of Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb heard the petition of Qazi Habibur Rehman, father of missing Professor Mazharul Hassan and Professor Zahoorul Hassan. He has sought the issuance of a writ of habeas corpus for the recovery of his sons missing since June 6.

During the hearing, the secretary Ministry of Interior appeared before the Court and submitted a report, wherein, it is clearly mentioned that no intelligence agency is under the administrative control of the Ministry of Interior.

The report, however, stated that efforts were made to locate the whereabouts of the detenues “but no clue was found.” It also stated that a special team under the supervision of the Senior Superintendent of Police (Operations), Islamabad has been constituted to trace the detenues by utilising all available resources.

Justice Miangul Hassan noted that neither any report was filed by the Ministry of Defence nor any submission made by the joint secretary which indicate that an earnest effort being made by the said ministry to locate the whereabouts of the detenues.

It was also informed that the Inspector General of Police, Islamabad was attending to a bereavement in the family. In his place, the Deputy Inspector General of Police (Operations), Islamabad tendered appearance and submitted a report according to which the ICT Police has not arrested or detained the detenues at any police station in Islamabad.

Ahmad Ishaq Jahangir, director general Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) also appeared before the bench and submitted a report according to which the detenues have neither been arrested nor detained in any Police Station of FIA. The FIA Headquarters has received reports from different Zones of FIA in the four provinces, all of which stated that the detenues have not been arrested or detained by FIA.

Justice Aurangzeb stated in this written order that this Court is faced with a situation where two brothers of one AzharMashwani, who is stated to be a “Human Rights and Social Media activist and Focal Person of the founding Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Imran Ahmad Khan Niazi,” have been abducted since 06.06.2024 and their whereabouts are not known to any of the respondents since the past more than two months.

He also observed that the State must realise that the petitions for habeas corpus especially those in the nature of the case at hand are a cry for help by the families of missing persons with whose pain, loss and mental state the State must empathize.

Additional Attorney Generals Aamir Rehman and Munawar Iqbal Duggal appeared on behalf of Attorney-General for Pakistan and sought sometime for further efforts to be made to trace the whereabouts of the detenues.

The order said that in deference to the request made by the AAGs, he deemed it appropriate to adjourn this matter to Tuesday 20th August 2024 so as to give another opportunity to the respondents to comply with the direction given by this Court in its order dated 09.08.2024.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024