The Islamabad High Court (IHC) said on Tuesday that intelligence officials would be summoned if officials fail to recover any “missing person” by tomorrow.
The court issued the directions while hearing a plea for the recovery of Haseeb Hamza, who had reportedly gone “missing” in August.
In the petition a copy of which is available with don.comPetitioner Zulfikar Ali submitted that his 27-year-old son Hamza was a farmer and worked in Layya.
The Secretary of the Ministry of Defense, the Director General of Military Intelligence (MI) and the Federation of Pakistan through the Ministry of the Interior have been named defendants in the case.
The petition states that on the intervening night of August 22 and 23, around 20 persons (15 of whom were in black uniform) raided the house of the petitioner 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.
“The circumstances suggest that the detainee is a victim of state-enforced disappearance. Petitioner ran post to post to find his son, but no information [was] received from any corner of the state organs,” the petition said.
The petition requested the court to direct the defendants to produce the detainee before the court. It also asked the court to identify and investigate those who are directly or indirectly responsible for kidnapping and prosecuting those responsible for illegal detention.
IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah presided over today’s hearing, in which Islamabad IG Dr Akbar Nasir Khan was present.
During the hearing, the Islamabad police chief said that a case has been registered regarding Hamza’s disappearance.
“It’s unbearable, IG Sir,” remarked the IHC CJ. He further added that there was earlier a judgment in respect of missing persons in which the IG and concerned officers were held responsible.
“The missing person should be produced in the court tomorrow at 10 am. If it doesn’t, we’ll all call [officer] And take action against them,” Justice Minallah said.
MI, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Intelligence Bureau (IB) will all be introduced to give an explanation for the state’s failure, he said.
IHC CJ asked MI, ISI, IB and Special Branch Sector Commanders to appear in court tomorrow if the person is not recovered.
The person in question has been missing since August 23 and the case has been registered on September 12.
Justice Minallah remarked that the court was placing its trust in the IG. “The Prime Minister of Pakistan also appeared before this court in the missing persons case,” he said.
The court adjourned the hearing till 11 am tomorrow (Wednesday) while issuing directions to produce the missing person. The court has also summoned the Chief Commissioner.