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