ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday directed the secretary interior to arrange a meeting of the legal heirs of missing journalist Mudassar Mehmood with highest state functionaries.

IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah issued the direction while hearing a petition filed by Rana Mehmood Ikram, father of the missing journalist.

The petitioner moved the court stating that the state could not satisfy him regarding the status of his son, Mudassar Mehmood, who went missing on August 19, 2018.

Despite filing a report, the concerned police station did not register a criminal case. In October 2018, the petitioner submitted a petition to the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances and pursuant to its proceedings a belated criminal case was registered.

Petitioner says state could not satisfy him regarding status of his son who went missing over three years ago

Justice Minallah observed: “The buck stops at the prime minister and members of the federal cabinet because collectively they constitute the federal government. It is an onerous duty of the latter to dispel apprehensions and doubts of the petitioner and other loved ones of Mudassar Mehmood regarding involvement of the state or its institutions in his status as a missing person.”

The court directed the secretary Ministry of Interior to arrange a meeting of the petitioner, mother, wife and the three year-old-son of Mudassar Mehmood with the federal cabinet, the prime minister and its members.

A joint investigation team was constituted but the petitioner asserted that its report was not provided to him.

The last hearing before the commission was held on April 9, 2021. The commission submitted a report stating that the “missing person has gone on his own.”

Justice Minallah noted that the phenomenon of ‘enforced disappearances’ had not been alien in Pakistan. It cannot be denied that deprivation of liberty of citizens by agents of the state or by persons or groups acting with the authorisation, support or acquiescence of the state has been acknowledged by public functionaries in several cases in the past.

He observed that “the phenomenon of ‘enforced disappearances’ definitely constitutes a grave crime against humanity.”

The court noted that the attitude of the authorities while dealing with the case had raised questions in the minds of the loved ones of Mudassar Mehmood regarding the role of the state and its involvement in his disappearance.

“Prima facie, they have reason to believe that the State and its functionaries are involved in the alleged abduction. This may not be true but the way they have been dealt with has given the loved ones reasonable grounds to believe the involvement of the State and its functionaries in the alleged abduction of Mudassar Mehmood,” the court order stated.

“It was, and continuous to be a constitutional obligation of the State to satisfy Mudassar Mehmood’s parents, wife and his three-year-old child that its institutions and functionaries are not involved, directly or indirectly, in the alleged act of abduction,” it added.

Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2021