‘Missing’ IT expert case: IHC reserves verdict

474

ISLAMABAD Feb 02 (TNS): Islamabad High Court (IHC) Justice Athar Minallah reserved on Friday the verdict on a petition seeking the recovery of ‘missing’ IT expert Sajid Mehmood.

Sajid’s wife, Mahera, had filed a petition in IHC in August 2016 for the recovery of her husband, who was ‘picked up’ from their house in March that year.

At an earlier hearing of the case on Jan 26, Islamabad SSP (Investigation) Capt (retd) Ilyas, who heads the joint investigation team (JIT) formed to probe the incident, submitted a report acknowledging that the case is of ‘enforced disappearance’.

The judge had then remarked that it “expects that the JIT shall ensure that the citizen who is alleged to have been missing since a considerable time would be recovered before the next date fixed.”

The SSP had told the court that the same report was submitted to the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances which had issued notices to the security agencies seeking their reply.

On October 21 last year, the Ministry of Interior had informed the court that all 15 departments working under it denied any involvement in the case.

Mahera has said in her main petition that she and her husband are both engineers and ran a small software development firm titled ‘QualityClix’. She added that they have three daughters.

According to Mahera, on March 14, 2016, Sajid was picked up by around eight men, who arrived in double-cabins and a land cruiser, from their house in Sector F-10 of the capital.

The police had not registered an FIR in the case until the intervention of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances.