The Supreme Court today suspended the Lahore High Court’s orders for the immediate release of Advocate Inam-ur-Rahim, a missing persons lawyers who had made a name for himself for challenging
the military establishment in courts of law. The retired colonel was picked up from his Rawalpindi home in the early morn of Dec 17th 2019 by armed security agents in plainclothes. He remained missing for the next 3 weeks, during which his family remained in the dark as to his whereabouts. The colonel’s son, Husnain Inam, had filed a petition against his “abduction”, but the case remained in a quagmire.
During the hearing on Inam-ur-Rahim’s abduction in front of the Rawalpindi Registry of the Lahore High Court on Jan 2nd 2020, Additional Attorney General Sajid Ilyas Bhatti confirmed to the judges that he was in the custody of law enforcement agencies, and was being interrogated for alleged violation of the Official Secrets Act (1923).
Bhatti, representing the government in the hearing, did not divulge the exact nature of the offense but provided that the court will be informed about the inquiry once it has been completed.
The LHC accepted the petition and ordered the Ministry of Defense and the federal government to submit their replies on January 9th, however on January 11th, the Federal Government approached
the Supreme Court to challenge the high court’s ruling. During the proceedings, Attorney General for Pakistan Anwar Mansoor Khan, alleged that the colonel was a spy who had had sensitive information on Pakistan’s nuclear weapons and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) which he was supplying to foreign powers.
President of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Qalbe Hassan, alleged that Col Inam-ur-Rahim was arrested for providing a copy of the Pakistan Army Act (1952) to then Chief Justice of Pakistan, Asif Saeed Khosa, during the hearing of the case on the tenure extension of Chief of Army Staff Qamar Javed Bajwa. Khosa had remarked that the Army Regulation was required to determine the definition of “extension”, upon which Col Inam-ur-Rahim promptly produced a copy.
Authored by Asra Haque