PoK is "Foreign Territory": Pakistan Government admits in High Court
Justice Kayani said if PoK is a "foreign territory" then how did Pakistani military and rangers enter the region to make arrests during the protests in May?
After decades of ongoing tension on the Pok, the Pakistan Government surprisingly admitted that PoK is Foreign Territory.
This admission was made on Friday when the court was hearing the abduction case of local Kashmiri poet and journalist Ahmed Farhad Shah, Pakistan government told Islamabad High Court (IHC) that Farhad is under police custody in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and cannot be presented because he is on “foreign land”.
The poet cum journalist Farhad has been missing for the past two weeks. It was later found that two cases were lodged by the police in PoK against him. In Friday’s court session, the Additional Attorney General was presented to IHC Judge Mohsin Akhter Kiani, he informed the court that Farhad faced at least two legal cases in Muzaffarabad and Dhirkot, PoK
Farhad’s lawyer, Imaan Mazaari, revealed that an additional attorney general admitted in court that Farhad was currently on “foreign territory.” According to him, PoK is a foreign territory with its own constitution, Hence he, could not be presented in the court.
In response to this statement, Justice Kayani said if PoK is a “foreign territory” then how did Pakistani military and rangers enter the region to make arrests during the protests in May?
Farhad was abducted from his home in Rawalpindi, after which his wife filed a case in the Islamabad High Court. Judge Kayani condemned Pakistan’s powerful intelligence agencies for persisting in the practice of forced abduction of people.
Hamid Mir, a Senior political analyst criticized the misuse of the law, while talking to a news outlet he said, “In the last hearing, the court was told that Ahmed Farhad was in Dhirkot lock-up. But when Farhad’s wife and child went to Dhirkot, he was not there. That means the Attorney General lied before the Islamabad High Court.”
“(The) Farhad case has given a new dimension to the issue of Kashmir. Now that they have admitted it, I want to ask how did the Pakistan Rangers go there (to PoK) during the recent anti-inflation protest,” he further added.
You might also be interested in – Size of RBI’s balance sheet is now 2.5 times that of Pakistan’s GDP
