News DeskISLAMABAD — In the dead of night, Pakistan’s crumbling facade of democracy took another hit. Journalist Waheed Murad was “forcibly disappeared” from his Sector G-8 home in the capital at 2:05 a.m. Wednesday, his family alleges in a desperate petition to the Islamabad High Court (IHC). Masked men in black uniforms, backed by two police double-cabin trucks, stormed in, manhandled his mother-in-law Abida Nawaz, and snatched her phone before dragging Murad away. No warrant, no explanation—just the chilling echo of a state that silences its critics with impunity.
Abida, an eyewitness to the raid, filed the IHC plea through lawyers Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir and Hadi Ali Chattha. She points the finger at “unknown officials, presumably from intelligence agencies,” a euphemism for Pakistan’s shadowy power brokers who’ve long dodged accountability. The petition demands Murad’s immediate production in court, an investigation into his abductors, and answers about his whereabouts and any charges—questions the state seems in no hurry to address. Islamabad police, feigning ignorance, told media they have “no information” on the incident, a convenient shrug from a force often complicit in such vanishings.
Murad’s wife, Shinza Nawaz, stranded in Canada, lashed out: “The government picks up whoever it wants. They break down doors and take people away.” She recounted how the intruders—masked and accusing Murad of being Afghan—ignored his ID card and hauled him off, leaving her heart-patient mother battered. Ten hours later, no FIR, no court appearance—just “mental torture,” she posted on X. A colleague, Soban Raja, tried to intervene, only to be rammed off his motorcycle, beaten, and stripped of his phones by the fleeing abductors.
This isn’t random. Murad, a veteran with Urdu News, News One, and daily Ausaf, had recently spotlighted the disappearance of U.S.-based journalist Ahmad Noorani’s brothers—nabbed from their Islamabad home last week in a near-identical midnight snatch. “The pattern’s the same,” lawyer Mazari told AFP. “It’s clear who’s behind this.” Pakistan’s press is bleeding: just days ago, Karachi journalist Farhan Mallick was arrested under draconian cyber laws for “anti-state” content, now facing a fresh fraud case to keep him caged.
Pakistan’s rulers—civilian and military alike—preach law and order while unleashing chaos on dissent. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan demanded Murad’s safe return, branding this an “abduction.” Senior journalists like Matiullah Jan and Mubashir Zaidi condemned it as a “blatant violation of free speech,” hailing Murad’s integrity. Activist Jibran Nasir didn’t mince words on X: “We’re fools pretending he’s missing when what’s gone is rule of law.” In a country ranked 152nd for press freedom, where disinformation laws gag truth-tellers, Murad’s fate is a grim warning—speak out, and vanish.
