The chief justice of the Islamabad High Court on Thursday directed the Military Intelligence (MI) director general (DG) to appear in person in the court on August 10 and produce four missing persons allegedly abducted by intelligence operatives.
A single bench of Chief Justice Iqbal Hameedur Rehman resumed hearing in four identical petitions, seeking recovery of missing Imran Yousufzai, Hayyan Dawar Khan, Osama Hanif and Dr Abdul Qayoom from the custody of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and MI. The missing persons were said to be affiliated with Hizbul Tahrir.
During the previous hearing, the chief justice had issued notices to the ISI and MI DGs and SP Islamabad Saddar Circle for submitting their replies on the issue, as petitioners alleged their institutions of picking up their relatives.
On Thursday, Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Tariq Mahmood Jahangiri told the court that on court directions, he had contacted the ISI and MI DGs for seeking their replies on the issue.
The DAG submitted that the MI DG had denied having the custody of missing person, while the ISI DG had sought time for furnishing the reply.
Jahangiri further submitted that FIRs had been registered as sought and investigation officers were probing the matter by making inquiries from the respondents and other agencies. However, the counsel for missing person, Umar Hayat Sindhu, strongly rejected the MI DG’s stance, saying the MI and ISI were involved in all four cases.
“I have concrete information that the missing person are in the custody of MI and ISI. They are being detained at GHQ,” the lawyer told the court. Upon this, the chief justice said the court was ready to depute a bailiff for the recovery of detainees if the lawyer had solid evidence than.
However, the lawyer submitted that court bailiff would not be allowed to enter the GHQ premises.
He requested the court order registration of FIRs against the ISI and MI DGs on charges of kidnapping citizens. After hearing the arguments, CJ directed the MI DG to appear in person on August 10 and produce four missing person allegedly abducted by intelligence agencies.
