LHC bench orders Punjab Task Force to recover missing WAPDA engineer

LHC Rawalpindi bench gives deadline till March 7 to produce Shahid Saleem who went missing since July 5, 2011

RAWALPINDI: The Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi bench Justice Qazi Muhammad Ameen on Thursday ordered the Punjab Task Force to recover an engineer missing since July 5, 2011.

The bench has sought a detailed report of the matter and given deadline till March 7 to present missing Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) engineer Shahid Saleem.

It further declared that it is the provincial task force's constitutional duty to implement the directives of the production order.



The development came after agencies continuously failed to produce the missing engineer in court. The missing persons commission first issued Saleem's production orders in December 2015. Failure of compliance led to the commission issuing a written complaint against intelligence agencies.

Another production order was issued by the commission in 2018.

Earlier, an investigation team comprising police, CTD and intelligence officials, submitted a report to the commission stating that Saleem was withheld by agencies.



Saleem's coursemate at Punjab University Abdul Sattar was abducted along with him. Sattar, who was released on the first production order in 2015, later confirmed that Saleem was still in the intelligence agency's custody.

Saleem was kidnapped from Wapda's Lahore office on July 5, 2011.

On November 22, 2011, Saleem's father lodged an application with the missing persons commission seeking recovery of his son.