ISLAMABAD: Amnesty International has raised alarm over PTI social media activist Azhar Mahwani’s disappearance.
In a tweet, it stated, “We are alarmed by reports of the enforced disappearance of Azhar Mashwani, whose whereabouts remain unknown. Enforced disappearances have stained Pakistan’s human rights record for decades and continue with impunity.”
“We call on the government of Pakistan to immediately release all disappeared people or promptly bring them before a judge in a civilian court of law to rule on the awfulness of their arrest or detention and whether they should be released,” it stated.
Earlier, PTI social media activist Azhar Mashwani’s wife, Mahnoor, wrote a letter to the Human Rights Cell of the Supreme Court, appealing for appropriate action to be taken regarding the abduction of her husband. She asked the authorities concerned to recover him soon.
She wrote, her husband has been disappeared for the past five days, Azhar Mishwani has been kept in an unknown location, and no clue where he is.
It noted that Mashwani had been managing PTI public gatherings and other social work for the party and also he was the focal person for the PTI chief Imran Khan. Due to this responsibility, people in the incumbent federal and provincial government do not seem to be very pleased,“ the letter stated.
Mashwani’s wife said her husband was “abducted and being detained illegally and unlawfully by the Punjab police in connivance with the FIA and other law enforcement agencies at the behest of some powerful people with the intention to harm him and the entire family.
His wife believes that his disappearance is a human rights violation and that he is being detained illegally and unlawfully by the Punjab police in connivance with the FIA and other law enforcement agencies.
Mahnoor has also requested Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial to take appropriate action against the abduction of her husband.
Mashwani was reportedly picked up on March 23 for allegedly criticizing the Punjab police and the caretaker government for using high-handed tactics against party workers.
