The Chief Justice of Islamabad High Court (IHC), Athar Minallah, has said that the state seems to be involved in the disappearance of hundreds of dissidents, given the proliferation of internment camps across the country, Friday Times reported.
During a hearing on Monday regarding missing journalist Mudassir Naru as well as other missing persons, Additional Attorney General (AAG) Qasim Wudood denied the chief justice's claim, saying that the state had ‘no such policy' and confirmed that at least 800 people were recorded as missing.
In response, counsel Inam Rahim refuted the AAG's estimates, claiming that more than 2,250 people have gone missing across the country, and the bodies of 221 missing persons have already been returned to their families.
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Wudood said that the matter has been presented before the cabinet, which will meet on Tuesday, in particular the case of missing person Maira Saijid, whose case has been placed before the cabinet, the report said. The counsel also said that the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances should investigate these missing persons' cases.
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The IHC directed the Commission to submit a report on the matter at the next hearing on February 28. It also requested the terms of reference for the same Commission. Mudassir Naru is a writer, poet and journalist, who went missing in August 2018 while on vacation with his family in Kaghan. In 2021, his wife died in her sleep, leaving the couple's only son, who is four years old, with his grandparents. Naru's whereabouts remain unknown, the report said.
