On Wednesday, after hearing from Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari and Interior Secretary Yousaf Naseem Khokhar, the Islamabad High Court deferred the hearing of journalist and blogger Mudassir Naru’s recovery case, The Asian Mirror reported.
During the hearing, IHC CJ Athar Minallah stated that a person’s disappearance is a failure of the state and a major crime against humanity.
“Mazari Sahiba, the court has invited you here to express that when someone is absent, no sagacity on the side of the state can be witnessed.” Why should not compensation be provided to the family of a lost citizen from the wallet of the top executive who went missing right under his nose?”
Minister Mazari was requested to give her opinion on the matter, and the hearing was postponed until December 13.
The federal government must also satisfy Mudassir Naur’s family by the next hearing, according to the court.
When one of the family members goes missing, according to the CJ, the entire family is traumatised.
“I completely agree with the court that all citizens have equal rights,” Shireen Mazari responded. In every case of a missing individual, the state’s response should be the same.”
The CJ argued that the rule of law is critical since such cases cannot be halted otherwise.
When Shireen Mazari stated that the previous administration had done nothing in this area, Justice Athar Minallah interjected, saying, “Half of our lives have seen non-democratic governments, and this is all the outcome of it.”
When the court rescheduled the hearing for December 13, an additional attorney general requested an extra week, which enraged the presiding judge, who exclaimed, “What are you talking about, the man has been missing for three years.”
The Islamabad High Court had ordered Shireen Mazari, the Minister for Human Rights, and Yousaf Naseem Khokhar, the Interior Secretary, to appear in court on December 1 in the case.
Naru, a writer, poet, and journalist, has been missing since August 20, 2018, while on vacation in Naran with his son and wife. Sadaf Chugtai, an artist and activist, died in her sleep in May 2021, leaving their son, who is only four years old, with his grandparents.
The high court ordered Prime Minister Imran Khan and the federal cabinet to listen to the grievances of the family of the missing journalist during a hearing on November 25.
Justice Minallah asked Deputy Attorney General Syed Tayyab Shah when the prime minister will meet with the family members of the missing journalist and informed him that if he didn’t tell the court the exact date, he’d summon the Interior Secretary at the next hearing.
The chief justice was enraged at Monday’s hearing when the extra attorney general couldn’t give the court the exact date of the prime minister’s and federal cabinet’s meeting with the Naru family.
If the kid of a wealthy man had gone missing, the state’s response would have been different, according to the IHC CJ.
A citizen going missing, according to Justice Minallah, is a serious crime. Following that, the victim’s family is required to visit a commission on a regular basis in order to learn about the missing individual, he added.
