Journalist summoned in missing doctor’s case
LAHORE – The Lahore High Court has summoned Abdul Manan, reporter of an English newspaper, directing him to explain whether he was sure about it that the missing doctor namely Ali Abdullah of Jinnah Hospital was taken into custody by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) as he claimed in his news story.
Justice Ijaz Chaudhry was hearing a petition filed by Muhammad Ismail, father of Dr Ali Abdullah.
The petitioner alleged that the reporter had links with the ISI and he knew about the whereabouts of his missing son. He alleged that the ISI personnel had abducted his son when he was on his way back to house from the hospital.
During the proceedings on Wednesday, Additional Advocate General (AAG) Waqas Qadeer Dar submitted that as per court’s earlier orders, investigation officer of the Garden Town Police Station had traced phone numbers of Manan who had been making phone calls to Muhammad Ismail after his son went missing.
Abdul Manan in fact was a representative of a newspaper and he had no links with the ISI, stated the AAG, adding that the phone numbers used by him for calling father of the missing doctor had been given to him by the media organisation he worked with.
However, the counsel for the petitioner insisted that Abdul Manan was the person who repeatedly called at the cellphone of the doctor’s father and he surely knew about the doctor’s whereabouts. The counsel said that the reporter often published news stories about the ISI and missing persons, and he surely had links with the Agency.
“Manan is the person who claimed in his story that Dr Abdullah was in the custody of the ISI so he should be included in the investigation to trace the doctor,” the counsel beseeched.
Upon this, the judge ordered the police to produce reporter Abdul Manan in the court on August 24 after giving him a copy of the FIR that was registered with the Garden Town police against the disappearance of Dr Ali Abdullah, as the FIR mentioned strange phone calls by some unknown person (Manan) to detenue’s father.
It is pertinent to mention here that both the reports from the ISI submitted in the court stated that Dr Ali Abdullah was not in its custody. After the report of the premier intelligence agency, the judge directed the police to start investigation and search the missing doctor. The judge had ordered the police to trace and include in investigation a person namely Abdul Manan who was calling the doctor’s father for taking information about him.
Source: The Nation
Date:8/20/2010
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