The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday ordered the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to produce Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) social media activist Azhar Mashwani – who has been missing more for than a week – in court on April 3.
Justice Aalia Neelum issued an order on a habeas corpus petition filed by Mazharul Hassan, the brother of Mashwani, in the Punjab province.
During the hearing, Azhar Siddique, the counsel for the petitioner, told the court that Mashwani was kidnapped from outside his Township residence on March 23 and since then his whereabouts were not known.
The counsel argued that Mashwani was a law-abiding citizen and entitled to fundamental rights including the right of individuals to be dealt with in accordance with the law in respect of the liberty and security of a person.
Azhar alleged that police and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) were being used as a tool of the federal and provincial governments against the petitioner’s brother. He said the Green Town police registered an abduction case on a session’s court order, but no progress has been made yet.
The counsel pleaded that if Mashwani was not recovered from the ‘illegal and unlawful detention’ of the respondents, the petitioner and his detained brother would suffer irreparable loss and injury. He requested the court to get the brother of the petitioner recovered from the alleged illegal custody of the FIA and set him free.
The inspector general of Punjab police and the Green Town SHO have also been made parties to the petition.
