LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Monday summoned the Punjab inspector general of police (IGP) after expressing dissatisfaction over a report submitted by the city police chief on the recovery of a “missing” lawyer Amir Saeed Rawn, an adviser to former chief minister Parvez Elahi.

Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Bilal Siddique Kamyana told the court that footage of CCTV cameras installed at as many as 44 private properties on the Zahoor Elahi Road had been examined. However, he said, no information had been retrieved so far leading to the whereabouts of the allegedly missing lawyer.

Justice Shehram Sarwar Chaudhry rejected the CCPO’s report as unsatisfactory and summoned the IGP on Tuesday (today).

Adam Saeed Rawn, a brother of the lawyer, filed a habeas corpus petition, alleging that the police abducted Amir and kept him in illegal detention at an undisclosed place.

He said the police picked up his brother on political grounds at the behest of the government. He asked the court to order the police to produce the alleged detainee.

Meanwhile, a general house meeting of the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) also condemned the “disappearance” of Advocate Rawn, also a former secretary of the bar, and announced lodging a strong protest if police failed to recover the lawyer within a day.

The bar representatives at the meeting resolved that a joint session of all top bar associations and councils would soon be convened on the issue of abduction and murder of lawyers in the country.

Published in Dawn, February 7th, 2023