One month on, ex-security czar still missing

Ex-MNA Sheikh Rashid Shafiq demands recovery of AML chief

RAWALPINDI:

A month has passed since former interior minister and Awami Muslim League (AML) chief Sheikh Rashid Ahmad went ‘missing’ from the federal capital along with his nephew and a domestic servant with concerns for his safety growing with each passing day.

In a video statement released on Monday, former MNA Sheikh Rashid Shafiq, who is the nephew of the former security czar, said: “We should be told where Sheikh Rashid is and how he is doing. What kind of a country is this that the former interior minister has been missing for a month but no institution or court is taking notice of this serious matter?”

In his video statement, Shafiq went on to add: “I hope that justice will be served by the Rawalpindi Bench of the Lahore High Court.”

He said Rashid’s family wanted to know how the former interior minister was doing. “There were assassination bids on Sheikh Rashid. He is suffering from heart disease and we do not know in what condition he will be,” he lamented.

“We are not afraid of jails but Sheikh Rashid should be presented before a court. The country’s oldest parliamentarian, aged 72, has been missing for a month. There is no case against Sheikh Rashid, but if there is any allegation, he should be presented in the court and legal action should be taken,” he said. “I demand all the institutions to release Sheikh Rashid,” he added.

Earlier this month, the LHC’s Rawalpindi Bench directed the relevant authorities to produce the former interior minister ‘within a week’. During the hearing, the LHC gave Rawalpindi police a “last chance” to recover the AML chief.

Rashid was at his home in a private housing society on the outskirts of Islamabad on Sept 17 when purported Rawalpindi Police personnel and some officials in plain clothes, raided the residence and detained him and three others. However, in a statement issued later that night, a spokesperson of the Rawalpindi Police denied the arrest and claimed Rashid was not in their custody. He has been missing since.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 17^th, 2023.