Petition filed in IHC for recovery of US-based journalist Ahmad Noorani’s 2 brothers

Investigative journalist Ahmad Noorani’s mother petitioned the Islamabad High Court on Wednesday for the recovery of his two brothers, who, according to the plea, were “forcibly disappeared” over his reporting.

The US-based Noorani, who works for a news outlet called FactFocus, recently published an investigative report regarding a serving high-ranking military official and his relatives.

The petition, a copy of which is available with media.com, was filed under Article 199 of the Constitution and mentioned the Federation of Pakistan via the interior secretary, the defence ministry via its secretary, Islamabad Inspector General of Police Syed Ali Nasir Rizvi and the station house officer (SHO) of the federal capital’s Noon Police Station as respondents.

The petitioner said that her two sons, Saifur Rehman Haider and Muhammad Ali were “forcibly disappeared” from their Islamabad home at 1:05am by “unknown officials ostensibly belonging” to the country’s intelligence agencies. It mentioned that they were brothers of Noorani, adding that he had “recently reported extensively” on a serving military officer.

“It is quite clear that his brothers have been subjected to enforced disappearance as a clear reprisal aimed at silencing Noorani’s journalism,” the petition said.

The mother said she had filed the habeas corpus petition in light of the “unlawful and unconstitutional actions on the part of public functionaries which have resulted in grave violations of the constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights” of her two sons and their family members.

The petition argued that the facts and circumstances surrounding the “abduction” of the brothers, “as well as the manner in which the abduction was carried out, indicated that the same is a state-enforced disappearance, perpetrated by [intelligence] agencies”, adding that the two were engineers and had nothing to do with Noorani’s reporting and investigative journalism.

She said that she had submitted an application for the registration of a first information report (FIR) but none had been filed so far.

The petition argued that the siblings were being “subjected to collective punishment due to their brother’s fearless investigative reporting, including most notably on the military. That the abduction of the detenus is clearly part and parcel of the state’s policy of suppressing dissent and criminalising journalism”.

It requested the court to order the respondents to immediately trace and produce the two brothers before it.

It also urged the court to direct the respondents to identify and investigate those responsible, directly or indirectly, for abducting and illegally detaining the two men.

The court was further asked to prosecute those responsible for the offences they were found guilty of committing under the law and order the respondents to disclose information on any FIRs or cases lodged against the two brothers.

The petition also sought the two brothers’ access to their lawyer and family as per constitutional safeguards.

It also asked the court to order the respondents to disclose before it the charges against the two men and the place of detention where they were being kept.

Lastly, the court was requested to order the respondents to grant the two men their right to be visited by their family.

As per the attached FIR application to the Noon SHO, around two dozen unknown individuals stormed the home around 1:05am and attempted to break down the main gate of the house.

It continued that the family locked themselves in a room upstairs worried for their safety.

However, the individuals, after forcibly entering the home by jumping over the walls, broke down the upper portion’s door.

It added that the mother was in contact with Noorani throughout the incident via a cell phone and as soon as the individuals saw her on the phone, they snatched her it away from her and disconnected the call.

It added that the individuals also seized her CNIC. Before leaving, they also took the mobile phones of both her sons and one belonging to her daughter.

It added that her daughter had recorded part of the incident on her cell phone, however, the men forced her to delete the footage and confiscated one of her two phones.

‘Relentless repression of dissent’

Global human rights organisation Amnesty International slammed the raid and the “enforced disappearance” of Noorani’s brothers as a “sign of relentless repression of dissent” in Pakistan.

“The absurd hounding of family members for the critical work of a journalist based overseas is a brazen attack on the right to freedom of expression. This comes days after a case was registered against Noorani under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act on charges of cyberterrorism and spreading false information for allegations of defaming state institutions.

“Amnesty International urges Pakistani authorities to immediately disclose the whereabouts of Noorani’s two brothers and ensure their safe return. Further, the government must conduct a prompt, thorough and impartial investigation into their disappearance and hold those responsible to account through fair trials. Pakistan must immediately stop the repeated attacks and intimidation of journalists, activists, opposition parties and their family members,” the organisation demanded.

The incident was also condemned by senior journalist Matiullah Jan as “terrible and highly condemnable”.

He said the Islamabad police must “act fast” and trace the brothers. “If they have committed a crime then they should be formally charged and produced before a court of law. The state authorities ought not to resort to lawlessness in the federal capital,” he said in a post on X.

The incident is not the first time Noorani has found himself embroiled in controversy. In November 2022, the government took notice of the “illegal and unwarranted” leak of the tax records of former army chief retired General Qamar Javed Bajwa’s family members.

“This is clearly violative of the complete confidentiality of tax information that the law provides,” a statement issued by the finance ministry had stated, a day after a report by FactFocus, which allegedly cited tax returns and wealth statements, claimed that Gen Bajwa’s family had amassed billions of rupees.

FactFocus describes itself as a “Pakistan-based digital media news organisation working on data-based investigative news stories”.

The website has previously published in-depth stories on the “misappropriation of funds” by a number of politicians and other powerful sectors in Pakistan, including PTI founder Imran Khan and former dictator General Pervez Musharraf.

In 2021, the website had claimed to have obtained audio of former chief justice Saqib Nisar giving orders to convict former premier Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz.

In 2020, the publication had released a report regarding the alleged offshore properties and businesses of former China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Authority chairman Lt-Gen (retired) Asim Saleem Bajwa and his family.