ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court has issued notices to the ministries of defence and interior, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and police on a petition filed for recovery of a missing person.

Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani of the IHC asked representatives of the ISI to appear before the court on Feb 3 when it will take up the petition about missing person Imran Sajjad.

Syed Ali Abbas, through his counsel Hafiz Arfat Ahmad, approached the high court against the alleged enforced disappearance of his brother Imran.

According to the petition, Imran left for Islamabad on April 19 last year from a village near Chakwal but could not reach his destination.

His family started searching for him and his driver. They contacted the Islamabad police for lodging an FIR, but the authorities flatly refused to register the case.

When the case was not registered in Islamabad, Mr Ahmed said, the family thought it was appropriate to approach police authorities in Sargodha district where Imran was present before heading to Islamabad.

Finally, he said, on April 25 the Sargodha police lodged an FIR against unidentified people for kidnapping Imram.

Now, he informed the court, it had been learnt on good authority that Imran and his driver were in the custody of an intelligence agency.

Since April last year, the petition said, the family had no information about the whereabouts of Imran and his driver. It said the family was suffering from acute mental torture and agony.

The petition requested the court to direct the authorities to recover Imran as early as possible.

Published in Dawn, January 24th, 2017