ISLAMABAD: Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani has declared Kashmiri poet Ahmed Farhad a missing person and termed his arrest illegal and suggested formation of a larger bench for hearing cases of missing persons.
Justice Kayani disposed of the petition seeking recovery of Mr Farhad and expressed doubts about the way the poet was arrested and produced before the court of competent jurisdiction in Azad Kashmir.
The IHC judgement released on Monday said: “Syed Farhad Ali Shah is declared an enforced disappearance/missing person until he reaches his home safely.”
Justice Kayani observed that when Mr Farhad reaches his home, the investigation officer of Islamabad’s Lohi Bher police station is bound to record his statement “under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) before a judicial magistrate and proceed with the investigation as a result”.
Formation of a larger bench suggested for hearing cases of missing persons
The judgement further said that the state machinery has failed to recover Mr Farhad and “his enforced disappearance started on May 15, 2024 from Police Station Lohi Bher and ridiculously legitimatised on May 29, 2024, the court, while examining all the facts and record, declares his arrest as illegal”.
On the matter of combining all such cases of enforced disappearance sub judice before the IHC and forming a larger bench to hear them, Justice Kayani ordered that the cases be presented before IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq “so he, using his administrative powers, may form a larger bench so that this matter of public interest can be dealt with in a better way”.
Further, the judge directed the IHC registrar to invite the directors general of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Military Intelligence (MI) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB) as well as the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) in-charge at the next meeting of the Criminal Justice Committee so they could present their requests and recommendations with regard to enforced disppearances.
The meeting’s aim would also be for all institutions — including the Islamabad police, inspector general of police and chief commissioner as well as the interior and law ministries — to protect citizens’ rights and deal with a “heinous crime such as enforced disappearance while remaining within the legal jurisdiction”, the order said.
The judgement further stated: “All such cases that pertain to national security affairs be fixed for in-camera hearing and if it is an important matter, then a larger bench may hear them after being briefed by heads of top investigative institutions. And directives shall be issued to not report such cases in media.”
Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2024
