IHC orders safe recovery of poet Ahmed Farhad after police clearance

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has observed that the judicial questions raised in the May 24 order about enforced disappearances and the working of intelligence agencies will be considered and decided in some other case.

The court directed the SHO of Islamabad’s Lohi Bher to ensure safe recovery of the detainee Ahmed Farhad after getting clearance from the relevant police station. It also told the petitioner’s counsel Iman Mazari to submit information with regard to the safe arrival of the detainee at his home on the next hearing.

Issuing a written order on a petition against the alleged enforced disappearance of Kashmiri poet Ahmed Farhad, the IHC’s Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani observed that attorney general along with police officials have placed a copy of the FIR under Section 186 of the APC registered at the Dhir Kot police station and submitted that Farhad was in police custody in connection with the FIR.

The high court observed that in view of new development, the Lohi Bher SHO should ensure the safe recovery of the detainee after getting clearance from the relevant police station, and the petitioner’s counsel was directed to approach the police station concerned for the recovery of detainee. The IHC said the questions raised in the instant writ petition vide the order of May 24 will be considered and decided in some other appropriate case. It said the federal law minister explained circumstances in which law enforcement agencies had suffered a huge loss in terms of human life due to the war on terrorism and claimed that certain laws are in process whereafter enforced disappearances will be declared as an offence and after criminalisation of the said charge the issue will stand resolved in the future.

The court observed that amicus curiae Hamid Mir has also drawn its attention towards the report submitted by him in writing highlighting multiple issues including but not limited to the Criminal Law Amendment Bill, 2022, where enforced disappearance has been criminalised. Hamid Mir said that there was no negative impact of such type of reporting; rather, by virtue of reporting made by the journalists it breaks the barriers of fear that exist in the cases of enforced disappearance. The court observed that such a view will help out the missing persons as well as their families for getting relief in accordance with the constitutional mandate. Hamid Mir also highlighted the cases of Mudassar Narro, who has been missing since 2018, and journalists Hayatullah Khan, Musa Khankhel and Saleem Shehzad, who were disappeared and killed.

The IHC said that during the course of proceedings, other journalist Imran Riaz Khan highlighted his ordeal which he suffered for more than three months during his enforced disappearance. It observed that all these shocking details had not yet been appreciated by the federal government and state institutions for the reasons best known to them. Secretary PFUJ Arshad Ansari represented his body, senior members of the Islamabad Bar Association, including President Riasat Ali Azad, and human rights activist Amna Masood appeared in support of the family of the alleged detainee. The court directed the petitioner’s counsel Imaan Mazari to provide information with reference to the safe arrival of the detainee at his home on the next date of the hearing.