Matiullah Jan abducted form Islamabad|Journalist kidnapped| ISI | contempt of supreme court

Senior journalist Matiullah Jan was reportedly abducted from Islamabad’s Sector G-6 on Tuesday, according to his family. Speaking to Dawn.com, Jan’s wife said that his car was found parked outside a school in Sector G-6 of the capital with one of his mobile phones inside the vehicle. Jan, a freelancer who has worked for numerous local and foreign media outlets, was due to appear in the Supreme Court this week after it took suo motu notice of an alleged contemptuous tweet by the journalist. “There were more than five people — some in civilian clothes, others in black uniforms — who forcibly picked up my husband,” Kaneez Sughra told AFP in a Security footage captured by the school where Sughra teaches showed several men force Jan into a sedan outside the main gate. The footage showed Jan toss a mobile phone over the school fence, only for a school security guard to hand it back to a man in uniform. An Islamabad police spokesman said officers had begun gathering information in the case. Sughra said her husband had been followed by unknown men in recent weeks. In 2017, an unidentified assailant threw a brick at his As the news of his disappearance drew the attention of journalists and international rights bodies, a tweet was posted on Matiullah Jan's account at 3:17pm — purportedly by his son — which read: "Matiullahjan, my father, has been abducted from the heart of the capital [Islamabad]. I demand he be found and the agencies behind it immediately be held responsible. God keep him safe." Meanwhile, Information Minister Shibli Faraz also confirmed the journalist’s abduction during a post-cabinet meeting presser later in the evening. “This much is established that he [Jan] has been kidnapped,” said Faraz. “We will try to find out where he is and how he can be recovered. This is the responsibility of the government and it will fulfil it,” he added. Terming the development as "unacceptable", Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Accountability Shahzad Akbar said he had spoken with the Islamabad police chief and instructed him to take "immediate action for retrieval and registration of FIR". Earlier in the day, CCTV footages purportedly showing his alleged abduction surfaced on social media, which showed several armed men exiting at least three vehicles. The footages were shared by several journalists on social media, however, police have yet to comment on their veracity. Meanwhile, officials from the Aabpara Police Station reached the site and said they were trying to acquire the CCTV footage. SHO Shaukat Mehmood said that the journalist's wife has not yet filed an application to lodge a report on his disappearance. Soon after, the chairperson of the Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights, PPP’s Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, tweeted that the Islamabad inspector general of police had been summoned to brief the committee with regards to Jan’s abduction. Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari tweeted around 5:30pm that she had been "just informed about [Jan's] kidnapping". She said she had taken notice of the "very disturbing" development and spoken to the Islamabad inspector general who informed her that "they are looking into it". Jan had tweeted a video of a journalist's interview earlier in the day. "This is for the attention of those who sit in the simulated air conditioned environment of rule of law in Pakistan and who think criticism on them is a bigger crime than the violation of the inviolable dignity of a human being," he wrote on Twitter at 11:05am this morning. Pakistan routinely ranks among the world's most dangerous countries for media workers, and reporters have frequently been detained, beaten and even killed over their critical views. Press freedom report terms Islamabad 'riskiest' territory for journalists, followed by Sindh Five hashtags regarding Jan's disappearance are currently trending on Twitter in Pakistan. PML-N president and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif termed Jan's disappearance as "highly condemnable and [a] matter of deep concern". "The government's campaign to muzzle the media & critical voices is simply shameful. If something happens to Matiullah, PM will be held responsible," he tweeted. PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari in a tweet said he was "extremely concerned" at the news of Jan's abduction. "The selected government must immediately [ensure] his safe return. This is not only an attack on media freedoms & democracy but on all of us. Today it is Matiullah, tomorrow it could be you or I," he wrote. Sp