Daily Times

The Islamabad High Court ordered the recovery of missing poet Ahmed Farhad Shah by May 24 and granted the state counsel an extension for the same.

Shah, a journalist and poet, went missing from his Islamabad home on May 14. During a hearing presided over by Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kiyani, the interior secretary and inspector general (IG) of Islamabad police were present in court, along with the attorney general for Pakistan (AGP).

At the outset of the hearing, the AGP requested an extension of two to four days for the recovery of Shah, assuring the court that the counsel would be able to locate him within the timeframe. The court granted the requested extension, with Justice Kayani questioning whether the AGP’s statements were made with the federal government’s consultation. The court also summoned the senior superintendent of police (SSP) operations to the rostrum and inquired if the police recorded any statements.

“The senior officer was not present, therefore, we recorded a written statement of a junior officer and sent the report to the secretary of defence,” the SSP responded. “This is your job, you have to do this” Justice Kayani remarked. Commenting on the absence of the defence secretary, the petitioner’s lawyer Imaan Mazari, argued that the secretary has never appeared in court whenever he is summoned.