Tracing missing son: Ex-army engineer’s quest continues

The young engineer was picked up from Islamabad a year ago.

RAWALPINDI:

The defence ministry informed the Lahore High Court  on Tuesday that sensitive agencies have not picked up the son of a retired army engineer. Justice Ijaz Ahmed of the LHC Rawalpindi bench, put off the hearing in the petition of Professor Javaid Iqbal, who sought the recovery of his missing son till July 6, after his counsel said they would provide the court with evidence about the illegal detention of Shahid Iqbal by the intelligence agencies.

An official of the ministry appeared in the court along with the standing counsel for the federation and denied any information about the whereabouts of Iqbal.

Citing the defence secretary, Regional Police Office, City Police Officer and Station House Officer Civil Lines Police as respondents, Prof. Javaid Iqbal, who retired from Pakistan Army as an engineer maintained that his son went to Islamabad from Lahore in January last year but did not return.

The petitioner said, he along with his son own a company, PECS Industries that makes electrical parts and assemblies for the automobile assemblers in the country. He said his son is also an electrical engineer who graduated from Electrical Engineering College Lahore, where the petitioner has been teaching for the last many years.

In January 2010, the 33-year-old Shahid Iqbal left for Islamabad for some personal work at Pakistan Engineering Council, but never came back, his father told the court. For the first two days, Shahid’s cell phone remained unattended but later it was switched off. Shahid’s father said he could not trace his son for many days.

It was only after an anonymous caller, calling from a private number informed the petitioner that his son was in the custody of intelligence agencies. He was picked up from outside the district courts, Rawalpindi.

Through personal contacts, the petitioner came to know that his son was safe and detained somewhere in Rawalpindi. Explaining the delay of more than a year in filing the petition, Advocate Shaukat Aziz Siddiqi counsel for the petitioner informed the court that Prof. Iqbal had tried to convince the authorities about the innocence of his son. The petitioner urged the court to direct the authorities to produce his son before the court, as he had no criminal record.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 15th, 2011.