ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday directed the federal capital police to present Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s nephew Hassaan Khan Niazi before the relevant court within 24 hours.

A single bench of Chief Justice Aamer Farooq issued the directions while hearing a petition moved by Faisal Fareed seeking Hassaan’s production before the court.

During the hearing, the IHC chief justice directed the representative of Inspector General (IG) Islamabad police not to torture Niazi and they should carry out the investigation as per law. He added that if the accused person belongs to a political party, it does not mean that he should be deprived of his basic rights.

The court also directed the police to arrange a meeting of the accused Hassaan with his family members and lawyers. After issuing these directions, the IHC bench disposed of the matter.

In the petition, the counsel stated that the petitioner is a practising advocate of High Court and the petition is filed to recover Hassaan Khan Niazi advocate, who has been “unlawfully and illegally abducted by the ICT Police from the court premises of Judicial Complex Islamabad.”

He informed the court that the abductee/petitioner appeared to seek pre-arrest bail in FIR No 3/2023 P/s CTD, Islamabad where his bail along with the undersigned counsels and he was granted pre-arrest bail by the Anti-Terrorism Court till 3rd of April 2023 while his pre-arrest bail in FIR No 153/2023 and 154/2023 p/s Ramna were confirmed.

The lawyer said that the abductee is a law practitioner and an officer of this court was coming out from the courtroom when the police picked him in most unconstitutional and illegal manner from within the premises of Judicial Complex.

He contended that the liberty of the citizens cannot be curtailed other than save in the manner provided by law while the petitioner has been abducted in the most unlawful manner.

Therefore, he prayed to the court the respondents be directed to produce the abductee before the court without fail.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023