By Ali Imran
ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday declared that the alleged abduction of journalist Matiullah Jan, who was released late on Tuesday night after brief captivity, was meant to “scare others” as it wrapped up a habeas corpus petition filed by the journalist’s brother.
Jan, who was due to appear before a Supreme Court (SC) bench on Wednesday in a suo motu case against him for posting a “contemptuous” tweet against the judiciary, was abducted on Tuesday by half a dozen plainclothes and police uniformed men from outside a government school in Islamabad’s G-6 Sector. He was released late night near Fateh Jang, some 48 kilometres from the federal capital.
While Jan was missing, a petition was filed by his brother Shahid Akbar Abbasi, through Barrister Jahangir Khan Jadoon, before the IHC.
The high court had accepted the petition “keeping in view the gravity of the matter and its implication in the context of constitutionally guaranteed rights of the citizen”.
IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah, who heard the case on Wednesday, noted that alleged CCTV footage of the incident showed that those who picked him up were in police uniforms. “Someone has the nerve to do such a thing in police uniforms,” Justice Minallah remarked, observing that vehicles that had surrounded Jan’s car had police headlights as well.
