Enforced disappearance: Court summons defence secretary, again

Defence ministry informs IHC that missing lawyer not in custody of any defence institution.

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has once again summoned Defence Secretary Muhammad Alam Khattak and directed him to appear in person in the case involving the allegedly kidnapped lawyer Hammad Dadan.

A member of the Islamabad District Bar Association (DBA), Hammad Dadan, along with two others, was allegedly picked up by armed personnel of an intelligence agency on June 20 and has yet to be recovered.

A single bench of the IHC presided over by Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui took up the case for hearing on Tuesday. Raja Alim Khan Abbasi and Mirza Shahzad Akbar appeared on behalf of the petitioner, while Colonel Farrukh Naz represented the defence ministry.

Naz told the court that Hammad was not in the custody of any institution under the Ministry of Defence.

Justice Siddiqui, while expressing displeasure, remarked that “the performance of our intelligence agencies is so poor that they have failed to even trace one person.”

The judge ordered the defence secretary to appear before the court and inform it of steps taken thus far on this count.

The hearing of the case was adjourned till Thursday.

Earlier, on July 8, the defence secretary had assured the court that all efforts will be made to trace the ‘missing’ lawyer and departments under the ministry have already been directed in this regard.

The court had granted the defence secretary till July 28.

The court had also asked the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief to provide requisite information about the alleged missing persons. The defence ministry’s legal director Falak Naz stated in a written reply that “In response, DG ISI intimated on 7-7-15 that no information is held regarding the missing persons. However, if any information regarding the illegal missing persons is received it will be shared with all concerned immediately.”

Mumtaz Anwar Abbasi has approached the IHC saying his son, Hammad, along with three of his friends identified as Abdullah Umar, Ammar Dadan, and Ahmad, went to Masjid Imam Abu Daud near the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences for Taraweeh prayers on June 20.

At around 11pm, the petitioner, through his counsel Mirza Shahzad Akbar, said he received a call from his son asking him to come help him as his car was hit by another vehicle from behind near a private school. Abbasi said when he reached the spot, Ahmad and residents of the area and a number of policemen present there informed him that Hammad, Ammar and Abdullah were taken away by armed men belonging to an intelligence agency.

Abdullah is reportedly Hammad’s cousin and was allegedly involved in the killing of Federal Investigation Agency Special Prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali, the petitioner’s counsel informed The Express Tribune. Umar was arrested as a suspect in the murder of the prosecutor, but was granted bail on medical grounds by an anti-terrorism court in July 2014.

Abbasi has cited SHO Industrial Area police, Islamabad IGP, DG ISI and secretaries of the defense and interior ministries as respondents.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, July 29^th, 2015.