PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court on Tuesday issued notice to federal government, seeking its response to the plea of wives of four brothers of a prominent business family against ‘enforced disappearance’ of their husbands for the last around 11 months.

A bench consisting of PHC Chief Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim and Justice Ijaz Anwar issued the order after preliminary hearing of a joint petition, claiming that the captors of their husbands had not fulfilled their commitment of setting them free after they withdrew their earlier petition as per their demand.

The petitioners include Gulalai Alkozai and three other women, who are wives of the missing brothers named Mohammad Nasir Alkozai, Usman Alkozai, Abdul Waris Alkozai and Zahir Alkozai.

Advocate Mohammad Muazzam Butt appeared for the petitioners and stated that the petitioners had last year filed plea for recovery of their husbands and several important proceedings had taken place in it including formation of a joint investigation team of law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

Lawyer says police have registered FIR but there is no progress in investigation

He said that the petitioners had withdrawn their petition on Oct 29, 2024, with the permission to file a fresh petition, if needed. He stated that the captors of the four detainees had demanded withdrawal of the petition as a precondition for setting them free.

However, he said that after passing of almost three months, the detainees were not released. He claimed that the detainees had been abducted from their residence in Hayatabad Township allegedly by persons in police uniform on Feb 28, 2024. He said that the detainees were shifted to unknown location and since then their whereabouts were not known.

Mr Butt stated that police registered an FIR against the abduction of the detainees but there was no progress in the investigation.

He said that the detainees were well-known businessmen and had invested billions of rupees in the Pakistani business sector. He said that they were compelled to withdraw the earlier petition with the commitment that the detainees would be released.

He claimed that the captors were now coercing them to invest Rs2 billion in some businesses after which the detainees would be released. He contended that the demand of the captors was a violation of Article 18 of the Constitution, which guaranteed freedom of trade and business.

The counsel said that they had also approached federal interior ministry besides others, seeking release of the detainees, but they had now been conveyed that the matter was beyond the authority of ministry.

He stated that in the CCTV footages of the abduction of the detainees, some of the perpetrators were wearing police uniform.

The respondents in the fresh petition are federal government through secretary interior, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government through its chief secretary, KP inspector general of police (IGP), KP home secretary, ministry of human rights through its director general, Military Intelligence director general, provincial secretary of parliamentary affairs and human rights department and SHO of Tatara police station.

It merits a mention that after the earlier petition was filed in the high court, National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) had issued notices to the family members of detainees for cancellation of their Computerised National Identity Cards, claiming that they were Afghan nationals and not Pakistanis.

Published in Dawn, January 29th, 2025