ISLAMABAD: The man whose disappearance led the Islamabad High Court (IHC) issue notice to the director general of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) last week was once a member of the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI).

It is learnt that the man, known to his friends as Arif Balakoti, parted ways with the JI in mid 1990s, on return from Afghanistan where he had gone to participate in ‘jihad’, and started a printing press in Rawalpindi Saddar.

On March 24, Justice Riaz Ahmed Khan of the IHC directed the ISI chief, Lt-Gen Zaheerul Islam, to appear before the court on April 2. He was issued the notice in connection with a petition filed by Parveen Bibi, the wife of Mohammad Arif, who has been missing since November 2013.

The notice was dispatched to the ISI headquarters by the office of Additional Attorney General on Friday.

According to Mohammad Furqan Kakar, who is Arif’s business partner, their major clients at the printing press included the army, educational institutions, private firms, offices and traders.

Four years back, Arif also obtained a licence or franchise to run two branches of ‘Dar-i-Arqam’ school in Iqbal Town and Dhamial localities of Rawalpindi. The chain of school is owned by important personalities within the JI, he added.

Initially, Arif was a schoolteacher in his native town of Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In 1989, he left the job to go to Afghanistan. His brother Mohammad Asif still teaches in Balakot.

Hafiz Sajjad Qamar, a client and friend of Arif, told Dawn that in 2005 Arif had also been picked by a spy agency but was later released.

Qamar argued that Arif was released because he was innocent and the agency could not find any evidence against him. But nine years later, he allegedly attracted the ire of the state again.

According to an FIR registered in the district of Khushab, Arif along with the general secretary of Pakistan Railways Mazdoor Union Ishtiaq Ahmed Aasi, Dr Azizul Hassan and Hafiz Abdul Rauf went to the Grote village in Khushab on December 17, 2013, to condole the death of the father of a friend, Javed Awan.

While returning to Rawalpindi, they disappeared along with their vehicle. After about two weeks, two of the abducted men - Aasi and Hassan - reached their homes.

According to the petition filed with the IHC last month by Ms Parveen, the two men after their return “disclosed that they were taken into custody by the officials of respondent No 2 (ISI).” The petition alleged that Arif was still in the custody of the spy agency.

Later, the vehicle in which the four had travelled was found near Arif’s home at Peshawar Road in Rawalpindi. Ms Parveen and other members of the family said they were not sure if Arif was alive.

After repeated notices, when no one from the ISI appeared before the court in connection with the petition, Justice Riaz Ahmed Khan directed the ISI chief to personally attend the proceedings. The IHC registrar office fixed April 2 as the date for the hearing of the matter.

AAG Khokhar said the notice had been forwarded to the spy agency though its receipt was still awaited.

When asked if there was any possibility that someone would appear on behalf of the ISI chief, he replied that the court direction had made it clear that the spymaster had to attend the court proceedings.

Though there is no precedence of any ISI director general appearing in the IHC since its establishment in January 2011, former ISI chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha appeared before the memo commission in April 2012 after his retirement.