KARACHI, Jan 20: A Sindh High Court division bench asked the counsel for a "missing" Pakistani journalist on Tuesday to identify in the courtroom or chamber on Thursday the agency holding him in custody so that it could issue a production order or depute a bailiff to visit the place of confinement and recover him.

The bench, comprising Justices Anwar Zaheer Jamali and S. Ali Aslam Jafri, made the order when Advocates Abid Saqi and Nadeem Qureshi reiterated that detainee Khawar Mehdi Rizvi was shown on the Pakistan Television by the Federal Investigation Agency together with the Paris weekly L' Express correspondents. The French journalists had since been allowed to fly home while Khawar was still being confined without remand or registration of a case. His whereabouts must be known to the FIA or some other official agency, they said.

The bench observed that it must know the identity of those currently holding the alleged detainee in order to pass an effective production or recovery order. Deputy Attorney-General Syed Zaki Mohammad informed the bench earlier that he had not been able to ascertain the alleged detainee's whereabouts and sought time to comply with the court's direction. Additional Advocate-General Sarwar Khan reiterated that the Sindh Police had nothing to do with the alleged arrest or confinement of the journalist.