August 9, 2025
By Rehan Piracha
LAHORE
Standing in the corridors of the Peshawar High Court, six families carry the weight of unanswered questions. Their loved ones have vanished without explanation, leaving behind only silence and the desperate hope that justice might still prevail.
On Friday, August 8, Justice Syed Arshad Ali issued notices to both federal and provincial governments, demanding responses in six separate petitions filed for the recovery of missing persons. The court proceedings revealed stories that have become tragically familiar across Pakistan — tales of men who disappeared into the machinery of the state, leaving families to navigate a labyrinth of bureaucratic indifference and legal uncertainty
The acquitted man who vanished again
The story of Muhammad Fazal reads like a kafkaesque nightmare. In 2022, he disappeared from his home in Jamrud, Khyber district. His family spent a year in the dark, receiving no information from police about his whereabouts or condition.
“For a year, we had no idea what had happened to him,” said Shahbir Gigyani, the lawyer representing Muhammad Fazal’s brother, Muhammad Ameer. “The family was left to wonder if he was alive or dead.”
The mystery deepened in March 2023 when the family discovered, quite by accident, that Muhammad Fazal had been nominated as a facilitator in a suicide bombing case — an incident that had occurred on January 19, 2023, while he was already missing. He had been held in Peshawar jail during the anti-terrorism trial, yet his family remained unaware of his detention.
Gigyani took on the case pro bono, filing an application under Section 265-K for Muhammad Fazal’s acquittal. In May 2025, the trial court ruled in his favour, clearing him of all charges. A release order was issued to Peshawar jail on May 31.
But freedom, it seemed, was not meant to be. On the very day of his scheduled release, counter-terrorism officials allegedly took Muhammad Fazal away from within the jail premises itself.
“He was acquitted by the high court, the release order was issued, but instead of being freed, he was taken away again,” Gigyani explained. “This time, even the jail had no record of who took him or where.”
During Friday’s hearing, Gigyani requested that the court direct jail officials to provide CCTV footage to determine who had removed Muhammad Fazal from the premises. The court has asked the Advocate General to submit a consolidated report regarding his disappearance.
The case highlights the complex web of Pakistan’s security apparatus, where even judicial acquittals cannot guarantee freedom, and where the disappeared can vanish again even from within the supposed safety of official custody
A PTI worker’s fate
The second case heard on Friday involves Nisar Gul, a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) worker who has been missing since last year. His disappearance follows a pattern that has become increasingly common for political activists, particularly those associated with opposition parties.
Bassam Siddiqui, counsel for Nisar Gul’s family, said his client, a PTI worker, was allegedly forcibly abducted. Despite the family’s repeated pleas, police have provided no information about his whereabouts during the months he has been missing.
“The family has been left in complete darkness,” Siddiqui said. “They filed reports, approached authorities, but received no cooperation from law enforcement agencies.”
Nisar Gul’s case reflects the broader targeting of political workers that human rights organizations have documented across Pakistan.
During Friday’s hearing, the additional advocate general sought time to submit a report on Nisar Gul’s case, but no timeline was provided for when answers might be forthcoming.
During Friday’s proceedings, the court disposed of one petition after the additional advocate general revealed that the missing person was actually in central jail, having been arrested by police. This disclosure highlighted the often chaotic nature of Pakistan’s detention system, where families can spend months searching for loved ones who are actually in official custody.
For Muhammad Ameer, whose brother Muhammad Fazal has now disappeared twice, the legal process offers the only pathway to truth. For Nisar Gul’s family, the court represents their last hope of discovering whether their loved one is alive or dead.
The broader crisis
The six cases brought before the Peshawar High Court represent just a fraction of a much larger crisis. According to the state-appointed Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances (ColED), 70 cases of missing persons have been disposed of in the month of july while 15 new complaints of missing persons were registred in the period.
The federal government reconstituted the COIED with the appointments of its new chairman and members of KP, Sindh and Islamabad in June.
According to the press information department, the commission has so far disposed of 8,770 out of total 10,607 cases of missing persons till July 31. ColED chairman retired Justice Syed Arshad Hussain Shah called for timely submission of comprehensive reports of joint investigation teams and provincial task forces of all provinces, Islamabad and AJK According to the June 25 notification, retired Justice Syed Afsar Shah was appointed as KP member in the commission, while retired Justice Nazar Akbar replaced retired Justice Zia Pervez as Sindh member and retired Justice Muhammad Bashir replaced ex-lGP Muhammad Sharif Virk as ICT member.