Pakistan: Journalist And Poet Faces Charges After Abduction
Ahmad Farhad is a 38-year-old Pakistani journalist of Kashmiri origin who was abducted from his home in Islamabad at 1 am on 15 May 2024 by four men. His family witnessed him being taken away into an unknown vehicle. The family filed a habeas corpus petition at the Islamabad High Court to produce him in court and the police subsequently started the investigation on the orders of the Court. The High Court has ordered the police to report its progress in the investigation to the court. On 17 May, Ahmad’s wife received a call allegedly from his unidentified abductors to withdraw her petition at the High Court to secure Ahmad’s return. He was not released after an application to withdraw was filed by her lawyers the next day.
Ahmad resurfaced on 29 May at a check post in Kohala, near Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-administered Azad Jammu and Kashmir. He was taken into custody and an FIR was filed against him at Dhirkot Police Station under section 186 of the Azad Kashmir Penal Code (APC) for “obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions”. He applied for bail before Sessions Judge, Muzaffarabad on 30 May 2024 but was denied bail on 4 June 2024.
Meanwhile, he was charged in an FIR filed at Bishmo Division Police Station Sadar, Muzaffarabad dated 13 May 2024. The charges against him, among others, relate to criminal conspiracy (120-B), rioting (147/148), unlawful assembly (149), attempt to murder (324), assault to prevent public official from completing their public duty (353), destruction of property (427/436) of APC and charges of terrorism under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997. The FIR was filed against “unknown persons” in connection with the Kashmir Long March organized by the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) demanding economic rights, reduced electricity tariffs, wheat subsidies and increased taxation for high income groups, in which 4 people were killed, among them a police official. Ahmad was not present at the protests; however, he was reporting on them from Islamabad. He has been implicated in the case on allegations of posting “probative and hateful content on social media, especially Facebook” as per the bail order dated 14 June 2024.
Ahmad was granted bail on 14 June 2024 while the case was being investigated. The charges against him remain and the investigation continues.
Ahmad is a journalist with 15 years of experience and has worked for over 10 mainstream Pakistani TV news channels, including Bol News, Hum News, Neo News and Capital TV. He is also a renowned Urdu poet, who has raised political themes such as enforced disappearances in his poetry. Ahmad has an active presence on social media. He has been an outspoken critic of political interference by the armed forces in Pakistan and has faced threats in the past due to his dissent. He was currently working as a freelance journalist after repeatedly being let go by previous employers due to pressure from state authorities. Ahmad had been under surveillance for the last two years, and his laptop was confiscated last year by the authorities. Ahmad has four children, the youngest among them is four years old. His health deteriorated while he was disappeared. He visibly lost a lot of weight. Upon his release, he has been recovering.
Enforced disappearances have been used in Pakistan to silence journalists, human rights defenders, dissenters and groups belonging to minority populations, particularly from Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. There is no law criminalizing enforced disappearances and there persists a lack of accountability from the state. Families of the disappeared are regularly subject to harassment, surveillance and intimidation by the state for demanding accountability for their loved ones. The practice of enforced disappearances violates the right to liberty, right to a fair trial and right to freedom from torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Pakistan has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment of Punishment.