ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday declared Kashmiri poet Ahmad Farhad a victim of enforced disappearances and directed authorities to refer to him as a “missing person” till he safely reaches home.
Farhad, who is known for social media posts critical of Pakistan’s powerful army, went missing from his Islamabad residence on May 14, prompting his wife to accuse Pakistan’s top spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), of abducting him and filing a petition in the IHC for his recovery.
The army has not commented on the development, but it has repeatedly said in the past it does not suppress critical voices. Before his abduction, Farhad had criticized the Pakistani military in social media posts regarding unprecedented protests held in Azad and Jammu Kashmir (AJK) in May.
Farhad resurfaced on May 29 in the custody of AJK police following multiple IHC orders. He was booked in case of obstructing a public servant’s duties. On June 1, his medical check-up was conducted in a Muzaffarabad health facility, while the IHC also disposed of on June 7 the plea to recover him.
“Syed Farhad Ali Shah is an enforced disappearance missing person until he reaches his home safely,” IHC judge Mohsin Akhtar Kayani stated in a court order on Monday, highlighting that state institutions had failed to recover the poet “arrested illegally.”
The court order urged authorities to produce Farhad before a judicial magistrate to record his statement under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) after he returns and “proceed with the investigation as a result.” According to section 164 of the CrPC, any judicial magistrate can record a confessional statement regardless of jurisdiction.
It directed the heads of ISI, Military Intelligence (MI), Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) to attend the criminal justice committee’s next hearing and relay their requests and recommendations.
Justice Kayani urged IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq to exercise his administrative powers to constitute a larger bench for all the missing person cases. The court order also restrained investigation agency heads from speaking to the media following in-camera briefings relating to national security matters.
“All such cases that pertain to national security affairs be fixed for in-camera hearing and if it is an important matter, a larger bench may hear them after being briefed by heads of top investigative institutions,” the court order read. “Directives shall be issued to not report such cases in the media.”
Justice Kayani observed Attorney General for Pakistan Mansoor Awan and Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar needed to ensure the poet’s safe return home.
Farhad’s case has once more put a spotlight on enforced disappearances in Pakistan in which families say people picked up by security forces often disappear for years and are sometimes found dead, with no official explanation. Pakistani security agencies deny involvement in such disappearances.
A complaint filed by the police at the Dhirkot police station in Azad Kashmir and seen by Arab News said Farhad was arrested by police as he tried to leave for his ancestral village in Kashmir from Islamabad. The complaint said police stopped Farhad’s car at 07:00 a.m. near Kohala Bridge in Azad Kashmir to ask for identification, following which he misbehaved with police officers and abused them.
Farhad was subsequently arrested for interfering in the government’s affairs under section 186 of the Pakistan Penal Code, the complaint said. The provision in the law deals with intentionally hampering, misleading, jeopardizing or defeating an investigation, inquiry or prosecution.
Rights organizations have frequently accused Pakistan’s military and intelligence agencies of illegally detaining and torturing dissenters without any explanation or following due process of law. The military and intelligence agencies deny involvement in such acts.
Pakistan court declares Kashmir poet ‘missing’ till safe return home
https://arab.news/rkkzu
Pakistan court declares Kashmir poet ‘missing’ till safe return home
- Ahmed Shah Farhad disappeared from his Islamabad residence on May 14 only to resurface in custody of Azad Kashmir police weeks later
- Islamabad High Court judge observes attorney general and Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar needed to ensure the poet’s safe return home
Pakistan PM launches first anti-polio vaccination drive of 2025
- Pakistan reported a total of 73 polio cases last year amid virus resurgence
- The country reported its first case of 2025 in Dera Ismail Khan on Jan. 22
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday launched a nationwide anti-polio drive, which aims to vaccinate more than 40 million children under the age of five years.
Polio is a paralyzing disease that has no cure. Multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five is essential to provide children high immunity against this terrible disease.
The Pakistan polio program conducts multiple mass vaccination drives in a year, and this year’s first anti-polio vaccination campaign will formally begin on Monday, Feb. 3 and continue until Feb. 9.
PM Sharif noted that Pakistan reported over 70 cases of the virus last year, while the country has reported one polio case this year, launching the campaign by administering anti-polio vaccine to children in Islamabad.
“We have to eliminate polio from the country at any cost,” Sharif said, thanking the World Health Organization (WHO), Bill Gates Foundation, Saudi Arabia and other international partners for their support in this regard.
“I hope we will be able to, this time around, with coordinated and outstanding team efforts, we will be able to eradicate this disease.”
Pakistan reported a total of 73 polio cases in 2024. Of these, 27 were from Balochistan, 22 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 22 from Sindh, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad. The country reported its first case of 2025 in Dera Ismail Khan on Jan. 22.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the last two countries in the world where polio remains an endemic.
Immunization campaigns have succeeded in most countries and have come close in Pakistan, but persistent problems remain. In the early 1990s, Pakistan reported around 20,000 cases annually but in 2018 the number dropped to eight cases. Six cases were reported in 2023 and only one in 2021.
Pakistan’s polio program began in 1994 but efforts to eradicate the virus have since been undermined by vaccine misinformation and opposition from some religious hard-liners who say immunization is a foreign ploy to sterilize Muslim children or a cover for Western spies. Militant groups also frequently attack and kill members of polio vaccine teams.
Police arrest two suspects in shooting that injured senior official in restive Pakistani district
- Additional Assistant Commissioner Sayed Manan was injured in a crossfire between warring tribes in Bushehra area while he was trying to ensure a ceasefire
- Fresh feuding between Shiite and Sunni tribes began on Nov. 21 when unidentified gunmen ambushed a convoy on Peshawar-Parachinar Road and killed 52 people
ISLAMABAD: Police have arrested two suspects of a shooting this week that injured a senior administration official in the northwestern Pakistani district of Kurram that has been hit by clashes for more than two months, a police official said on Sunday.
Kurram, a tribal district of around 600,000 where federal and provincial authorities have traditionally exerted limited control, has frequently witnessed violence between its Sunni and Shiite communities over land and power. Travelers to and from the area often ride in convoys escorted by security officials.
Fresh feuding began on Nov. 21 when gunmen ambushed a convoy and killed 52 people, mostly Shiites. The assault triggered road closures and other measures that have disrupted people’s access to medicine, food, fuel, education and work and created a humanitarian crisis in the area, where authorities say at least 150 people have been killed in two months of clashes.
Additional Assistant Commissioner Sayed Manan was injured in a crossfire between warring tribes in Bushehra area while he was trying to ensure a ceasefire there, according to Kurram police spokesman Riaz Khan. Manan was flown to the provincial capital of Peshawar in a helicopter in critical condition after being shot in the stomach.
“Late Saturday, during a special operation, the police force took into custody suspects, Iqrar Hussain son of Aftab Hussain and Maysam Ali son of Akbar Ali, residents of Bushehra,” Khan said in a statement. “Further investigation is underway.”
Feuding tribes have been engaged in battles with machine guns and heavy weapons, isolating the remote, mountainous region. The main road connecting Parachinar, the main town in Kurram, to the provincial capital of Peshawar has been blocked since sectarian fighting began in November.
The violence has continued despite a peace agreement signed between the warring tribes on Jan. 1. Under the peace agreement, both sides had agreed on the demolition of bunkers and the handover of heavy weapons to authorities within two weeks, but there has been little to no progress on the terms.
Shiite Muslims dominate parts of Kurram, although they are a minority in the rest of Pakistan, which is majority Sunni. Provincial and federal authorities have been supplying relief goods and evacuating the injured and ailing from Kurram to Peshawar via helicopters since last month.
Muhammad Ali Saif, a KP government spokesman, said on Friday “hatred” was the root cause of the Kurram issue and lasting peace in the region was not possible without eliminating it.
“All elements challenging the government’s writ will be punished according to the law,” he said, while speaking to a council of tribal and political elders in Kohat that was formed to resolve the Kurram issue.
“The Kohat [peace] agreement will be equally applicable to both parties.”
Pakistan arrests 10 suspects for begging in Saudi Arabia under guise of Umrah
- Suspects were deported from Saudi Arabia for being involved in begging, says Federal Investigation Agency
- Pakistan’s FIA says authorities conducting strict screening across all airports, vows stern action against beggars
KARACHI: Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) said on Sunday it has arrested 10 persons deported from Saudi Arabia for allegedly begging in the Kingdom despite traveling there on Umrah visas.
The trend of beggars abusing visas to beg in foreign countries has Pakistan worried that it could impact genuine visa-seekers and particularly religious pilgrims to Saudi Arabia. According to widespread media reports, Riyadh raised this issue with Islamabad at various forums last year.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said in November 2024 that an “effective crackdown” was being carried out across the country against Pakistanis traveling to the Kingdom on pilgrim and other visas and resorting to begging.
“In a major operation by FIA Immigration at Karachi airport, 10 suspects involved in begging under the guise of Umrah were arrested,” the agency said in a statement.
The suspects were deported from the Kingdom for being involved in begging and had arrived in Karachi via flight SV-704. The FIA said they hail from Pakistan’s Rajanpur, Naushahro Feroze, Kashmore, Lahore, Peshawar, Mohmand and Larkana cities and districts.
The agency said its initial investigation proved the suspects were begging in Saudi Arabia for several months, adding that they were transferred to the Anti-Human Trafficking Circle in Karachi for further legal action.
“FIA Immigration is conducting strict screening at all airports,” the FIA said. “Passengers going abroad are being checked from all aspects. Strict action is being taken against those involved in begging.”
Pakistanis are the second-largest expatriate community in the Kingdom, with over 2.5 million living and working in Saudi Arabia, the top source of remittances to the South Asian country.
Pakistan interior minister urges Imran Khan’s party to avoid Feb. 8 countrywide protests
- Khan has called on protesters to mark Feb. 8 Pakistan election anniversary as “Black Day” to protest alleged rigging
- Tri-nation cricket series involving South Africa, New Zealand and Pakistan will kick off in Lahore from Feb. 8
ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi this week urged former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party to avoid protesting on Feb. 8, the same day a tri-nation series involving international cricket teams from South Africa and New Zealand is to kick off in the eastern city of Lahore.
Khan’s party has called on thousands of his supporters to mark the one-year anniversary of Pakistan’s controversial Feb. 8, 2024 general election as a “Black Day.” The former prime minister has urged people from all walks of life to hold protests in their respective cities against alleged rigging on Feb. 8.
Last year’s polls were marred by a countrywide shutdown of cellphone networks and delayed results, leading to widespread allegations of election manipulation by the PTI and other opposition parties. The caretaker government and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) denied the allegations. The US House of Representatives, as well as European countries, have called on Islamabad to open a probe into the allegations — a move that Pakistan has thus far rejected.
Pakistan is set to host New Zealand and South Africa for a tri-nation cricket series starting Feb. 8-14 in Lahore and Karachi. The matches on Feb. 8 and 10 will be held in Lahore. Pakistan will then host the eight-nation Champions Trophy cricket tournament from Feb. 19-Mar. 9 in Lahore, Rawalpindi and Karachi.
“Like before we will request them not to do this [Feb. 8 protest],” Naqvi told reporters at a press conference in Lahore on Saturday.
“I did this before too when they started giving dates for the Nov. 26 [protests]. If they don’t [call off the protest] then...,” Naqvi paused abruptly without finishing the sentence, hinting the government would take action.
The interior minister was referring to the party’s November protests last year in which thousands of Khan supporters arrived in the capital, threatening to demand his release from prison. The government says four troops were killed in clashes, a charge the PTI denies and says scores of its workers were also killed.
Khan’s ouster in a parliamentary no-trust vote in 2022 has plunged Pakistan into a political crisis, particularly since the PTI founder was jailed in August 2023 on corruption and other charges and remains behind bars.
Khan’s party and the government held talks last month to ease political tensions in the country. However, the PTI ended negotiations this month, saying the government had failed to honor its demands of establishing judicial commissions to probe the protests of May 9, 2023, and November 2024.
Dallas-based Pakistani chef to feature in popular US culinary show
- Maryam Ishtiaq, 32, will feature in the latest season of ‘Next Level Chef’ set to premiere on Feb. 13
- Ishtiaq will feature as a contestant on show with celebrated British chef Gordon Ramsay as judge
ISLAMABAD: Dallas-based Pakistani chef Maryam Ishtiaq recently announced on Instagram that she will be part of the upcoming season of the popular American culinary reality TV show, “Next Level Chef,” saying she was proud to represent her community on the international stage.
Next Level Chef is an American culinary reality competition TV series featuring celebrated chefs Gordon Ramsay, Nyesha Arrington and Richard Blais. The three recruit talented chefs from around the world and take them under their wing, with the contestants facing unique cooking challenges.
Ishtiaq, 32, describes herself as a “self-taught” chef with years of experience cooking for large families, catering for intimate gatherings and hosting private parties. She is the co-founder of an American food company “Its Actually” which sells halal broth.
“I have consistently followed a unique career journey, and I am incredibly thankful for the opportunity to turn my dreams into reality while pursuing my passions,” she wrote on Instagram on Jan. 28, announcing that she will feature in season 4 of the culinary show.
“My world is about to get rocked, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to represent my community on such a prominent platform while doing what I love most! Let’s do this!”
The fourth season of the popular American reality show will kick off on Feb. 13 on Fox network.
Speaking to Dawn Images, Ishtiaq said she applied to be a contestant on Next Level Chef “years ago and totally forgot that I did.”
She told the publication that one day she randomly got a call from the show’s staff who were interested in her.
“You go through multiple rounds of interviews, auditions, background checks,” she said.
Last month, Ishtiaq was featured in an article on private chefs on Forbes. The Pakistani-American chef told the website she plans to open a cafe where halal food can coexist with other dietary restrictions on a varied menu.
