PHC asks federal, KP govts to produce missing person today

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday directed the federal and provincial governments to produce today (Thursday) a detainee who had been taken away by a law-enforcement agency from the custody of the district administration of Bajaur and remains untraced ever since.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Abdul Shakoor passed the direction to the government through law officers representing the federal and provincial governments in the petition.

The court also directed the commander of Army Wing 206 Bajaur and secretary home Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to appear in the case today.

The bench passed the direction in a writ petition filed by Fazal Rahim, a resident of Bajaur, seeking production of his missing son Abdul Wali Khan in the court.

During the hearing, Shabir Hussain Gigyani, counsel for the petitioner, submitted that recently the high court disposed of the appeal filed against conviction of the petitioner’s son with the observation that he could file an appeal in the Bajaur district court after the authorities informed the court that he had been convicted up to 10 years on the direction of the law-enforcement agencies during hand-over to the district authorities in 2018.

He submitted that the petitioner’s son was first picked up by the law-enforcement agencies on March 1, 2017, and after one and a half years, he was handed over to the district authorities, who awarded him 10 years conviction for his alleged links with militants.

However, he submitted that when the petitioner filed an appeal against the conviction in the district court and submitted a bail petition, the Bajaur deputy commissioner submitted reply in which he stated that the agencies had kept the detainee along with others as “Amanat” and now they again took away their “Amanat” from the district authorities.

After examining the statement of the deputy commissioner, the bench took notice of the issue and questioned the law officers how the law enforcing agencies took away the detainees from the authorities’ custody without any court order and now again they are missing. The bench directed the law officers to ensure production of the detainee in the court today.