The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday summoned the investigation officer handling the alleged abduction of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Public Health Engineering Minister Fazal Shakoor Khan, as questions were raised over how he disappeared near a heavily monitored motorway toll plaza.
A division bench comprising Senior Puisne Judge Justice Ijaz Anwar and Justice Kamran Hayat Miankhel was hearing a petition seeking the minister’s recovery.
According to the petitioner’s counsel, Fazal Shakoor was travelling near the M-1 motorway toll plaza in Peshawar when armed men in plain clothes allegedly intercepted his vehicle in broad daylight. The lawyer said the men fired at the vehicle’s tyres before taking the minister away.
Justice Anwar questioned how such an incident could occur and sought information about those involved.
“Who are these armed men? What is the police doing?” the judge asked.
The bench also questioned whether a first information report had been registered. The government’s lawyer confirmed that an FIR had been filed.
The petitioner’s counsel drew the court’s attention to the presence of police and Excise Department checkpoints near the location of the alleged abduction, claiming that personnel stationed there did not intervene.
During the proceedings, Additional Advocate General Bilal Khalil proposed that a judicial inquiry be conducted into the incident.
The high court subsequently ordered the investigation officer to appear before it and adjourned further proceedings until September 25.
The recovery petition was filed on Tuesday, a day after Fazal Shakoor and two people accompanying him were allegedly taken away by unidentified armed men near the M-1 toll plaza.
The circumstances of their disappearance remain under investigation, and the identity of those allegedly involved has not been established in the information provided.