Daily Times

Poet Ahmed Farhad will undergo a medical examination by a team of doctors from the Abbas Institute of Medical Sciences on the orders of an anti-terrorism court in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).

The development comes after Farhad’s lawyer requested the court to have him medically examined.

The Kashmiri poet, as per his lawyer Iman Mazari, was transferred to Muzaffarabad from DhirKot under multiple sections of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA). With the government’s lawyer requesting time to submit his response, the court adjourned the case till June 3.

Farhad, known for his defiant prose, was allegedly abducted from his house on May 14 after which his wife Urooj Zainab moved the Islamabad High Court (IHC) seeking her husband’s recovery along with requesting the court to identify, investigate, and prosecute those responsible for his disappearance.

In response to IHC’s directions to recover the missing poet, Attorney General of Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Usman Awan on May 29, revealed that Farhad was arrested and in AJK Police’s custody.

Following the development, the poet’s family met him at the Kahori police station situated outside Muzaffarabad. Following the meeting, the brother of the poet told reporters the condition of Farhad was stable and they would now fight a legal battle in AJK. A day earlier, the IHC turned down the federal government’s plea to wrap up Farhad’s recovery case till he appears personally in the hearing.

IHC’s Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, while hearing a petition filed by the poet’s wife, rejected the additional attorney general’s plea stressing that the case would be concluded on the day when Farhad is produced before the court. The court then adjourned the case till June 7.