Senior Pakistani journalist Matiullah Jan 'goes missing again'

Senior Pakistani journalist Matiullah Jan has gone “missing” from the parking of a prominent hospital in Islamabad. Mati, 55, has been reporting on the PTI march to Islamabad and was investigating the government’s claim of no deaths taken place during the use of force by the establishment in a bid to push back the marching protesters from D-Chowk on Tuesday (November 26).

Matiullah hosts a prominent mainstream TV show and also has a big YouTube presence and keeps the internet verse informed through his fearless vlogs.

An FIR has surfaced 13 hours after Matiullah Jan went missing and what his family defines as abduction. The FIR by Islamabad police maintains that Matiullah Jan was under the influence of drugs when he rammed into a police barrier, snatched the gun from the policeman on duty and pointed the gun at him.

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Matiullah’s Family maintains that Matiullah went missing from the parking of PIMS hospital in Islamabad on November 27 at around 11 pm just before midnight. It is also pertinent to mention that for someone who has been alleged to be under the influence of drugs at the time of the claimed attack, Matiullah Jan does not even smokes, he has been a strong opponent of the use of any sort of drugs or tobacco.

Mati’s son in a video statement confirmed that his father had gone missing from the parking of PIMS in Islamabad alongside another journalist just before midnight on November 27. The other journalist, Saqib Bashir, also a court reporter for a prominent Pakistani TV network was later released in one of the farther sectors of Islamabad.

Saqib could not describe the event much saying that both were blindfolded.

Meanwhile, sources in Islamabad police said that Matiullah was at Margalla police station but refused to divulge details of the charges and case against him.

Lawyers of Matiullah Jan, Imaan Mazari and Abdul Hadi Chatta said that “after quite a lot of back and forth and struggle, we did manage to get inside the Margalla police station to see our client but he was taken away from the police station before we could see him”.

Matiullah is likely to be presented before an Anti Terrorism Court later today on charges that are  unknown yet.

Matiullah had been reporting from the ground on PTI’s protest and the reported use of excessive force. He had also been investigating the claims of deaths of PTI supporters as a result of the violence that ensued during clashes between protesters and the law enforcement agencies.

Matiullah Jan's Abduction

When Matiullah Jan was abducted in July 2020, the then Prime Minister Imran Khan while speaking to reporters after his ouster had said that he was not aware of Matiullah Jan’s abduction and that he had asked the then DG ISI Lt Gen(rtd) Faiz Hameed to find him immediate.

Following his retirement, Pakistan’s former Army Chief Gen Rtd Qamar Bajwa rambled about the then abduction of Matiullah Jan while speaking to a journalist and said he had reprimanded the then chief of Pakistan’s premier spy agency on the “mannerism in which Matiullah Jan was kidnapped”.

CCTV footage in July 2020 showed people in police uniforms abducting Matiullah Jan. However, the Islamabad police till date maintain they weren’t able to identify the vehicles used during the kidnapping.

After the abduction, the then leader of the opposition who is now the Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif had tweeted about Matiullah’s abduction and held the Prime Minister at the time responsible incase if something happened to Matiullah.

It remains unclear as to who abducted Matiullah Jan and how he managed to land at the Margalla police station and disappear again. The PMLN government currently in power is yet to comment on the matter.