ISLAMABAD: The Islam­abad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday directed senior officials of police and intelligence agencies to appear in person before the court on Wednesday morning if they could not produce or trace the whereabouts of a person missing since last month.

IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah directed the Insp­ector General of Islamabad Police to make all-out efforts to produce one Haseeb Hamza, or face the consequences.

While hearing a petition filed by Zulifqar Ali, father of the ‘missing’ person, Jus­tice Minallah observed that he was picked up from this court’s jurisdiction and the court would summon every responsible official and held them accountable if the chief commissioner and police chief of Islam­abad failed to produce the citizen.

The court order said in case the petitioner’s son was not produced nor his whereabouts were traced by Wed­nesday morning, the Islam­abad chief commissioner, police chief and senior officials of special branch and intelligence agencies would have to appear in person.

Justice Minallah directed the police chief to inform them about the court order.

The chief justice then expressed confidence in the state functionaries responsible for the safety and security of citizens and said he hope that they would trace and produce him by Wednesday morning.

The petitioner’s lawyer adopted before the court that Hamza was picked up on Aug 22 by some people in uniform. Police registered later FIR on his complaint but investigation did not make any headway.

On court’s query, Islamabad IGP Nasir Akbar Khan said the FIR was registered on Sept 12 and efforts were being made to recover him.

The chief justice noted that the incident took place on Aug 22 and the FIR was registered on Sept 12 and expressed displeasure over the delay. He observed that the IG was not able to explain why the case was registered after a considerable delay. The court could not turn blind eyes to this grave situation and remarked that such practice couldn’t be tolerated, he remarked.

Justice Minallah remarked that “legal action” should have been taken against the citizen if he had committed any offence.

Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2022