Family of four ‘abducted’ brothers moves PHC, again

PESHAWAR: The families of the four brothers from Hayatabad, who were reportedly picked up by the local police, on Tuesday again approached the Peshawar High Court to seek their recovery as they could not be recovered even after one year.

The petition filed by Gulalai Alkozai and others through advocate Moazam Butt has requested the court to issue orders to state institutions for their recovery.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief secretary, federal secretary of Interior, Ministry of Human Rights, secretary of Home, Khyber Pakhtun-khwa Inspector General of Police, station house officer Tatara Police Station and others have been made as respondents.

The petitioners said that they were residents of Hayatabad and were doing business, having invested billions of rupees in Pakistan.

Some one year ago, personnel dressed in uniform came to their house and abducted four brothers - Muhammad Nasir, Usman Khan, Muhammad Zahir and Abdul Waris - and took them to an unknown location.

They filed a petition in the PHC for their recovery, providing CCTV footage of the incident. However, two months ago, the petition was withdrawn because assurances were given for their release. Despite this, the four brothers have not been recovered, prompting the filing of a new petition.According to the petitioners, pressure was also exerted on them to invest Rs2 billion in Pakistan for the release of four brothers.

They argued that this was a violation of Articles 18 and 11 of the Constitution, as the Constitution guaranteed the right to freely engage in business without any coercion.The affected family contacted the Ministry of Interior, which asked them to wait for 48 hours, but the release was not secured. The family members, including the wives and children of the abducted brothers, were suffering from severe mental agony, and their property remained unprotected, which they considered a great injustice.

The petition said the state had failed to provide them protection under Article 4 of the Constitution. The illegal detention of the brothers, it added, was also a violation of Article 10 of the Constitution and international laws.