JournalismPakistan.com
September 19, 2023

ISLAMABAD—Daily Dawn on Tuesday expressed disappointment over the continued disappearance of journalist Imran Riaz Khan, maintaining that “to render someone ‘missing’ is perhaps the worst cruelty a state can perpetrate”.

In an editorial—Missing anchorperson—the paper said since May 11 this year, Riaz remains missing with no information about his wellbeing. “Since officially, the state has disavowed any responsibility for Mr Riaz, there has been no information about the conditions he has been kept in, whether he is healthy and in good physical condition, or whether he is even alive.”

The newspaper feared that the case of Riaz “seems doomed to becoming a footnote in the long list of excesses perpetrated by the state to keep dissident voices in check.”

The editorial said when a person goes missing, “it condemns entire families to an unending nightmare of not knowing where their loved ones are, and in what state. Pakistan has been one of the worst offenders on this count.”

The paper maintained that the Lahore High Court would take up the case again this week. But it regretted that the Punjab IGP “has been allowed to get away with these empty excuses for so long. Every day this case is prolonged is an injustice to Mr Riaz and his worried family. The court must now ensure results.”