Pakistani journalist Syed Fawad Ali Shah, who had been missing since 23 August, 2022, has been deported by Malaysia at the request of the Pakistani High Commission in Kuala Lumpur. Twitter/@SyedFawadAli303.
Kajang: Pakistani journalist Syed Fawad Ali Shah, who had been missing since 23 August, 2022, has been deported by Malaysia at the request of the Pakistani High Commission in Kuala Lumpur. The Malaysian authorities said Shah was deported because authorities in Islamabad told them he was a police officer who was subject of “disciplinary proceedings”.
He was deported by Malaysia’s then Perikatan Nasional government, with the country’s home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail saying that the deportation took place following a request from Pakistan.
A report by Free Malaysia Today quoted Saifuddin saying, “He (Fawad) was sent back to Islamabad as early as the third week of August.”
‘Was never was a police officer’
Shah, also known as Fawad Shah, has never been a police officer. The 41-year-old man has been residing legally in Malaysia since 2014 under the refugee status granted to him by the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). He had been issued the refugee status because he earlier was allegedly kidnapped by members of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan.
Saifuddin, however, said while the media identified Syed as a journalist, the government officially recognised him as a former Pakistani police officer with disciplinary cases.
“There are two versions here. The media reports him as a journalist, but the official version from Pakistan is that he is a former cop with various cases. I quote this from a Pakistani government source,” Saifuddin said.
“But although he is a former police officer, he also has a good ability to write. As such, he wrote extensively criticising the government. This was why he is pictured as a journalist,” the Pakistani minister added.
Tortured, jailed
Shah was jailed and was tortured for three-and-a-half months allegedly for a series of by-lined investigative stories he wrote for The Nation newspaper about enforced disappearances and about ISI’s probable links with Taliban groups.
Shah’s wife said she has not seen or her from her husband since 23 August, 2022. With no update on his whereabouts, she travelled to Kuala Lumpur on 19 December last year to find out what had happened to him. She was referred to UNHCR by both the police and the immigration department who said they had no jurisdiction over his case.
Earlier this month, his wife said that she received a call from an unknown number where a Pakistani person advised her to stop looking for her husband.
A report by Reporters Without Borders quoted Syed’s wife saying, “It was made clear to me that my life would now be in danger if I returned to my country, because the intelligence agencies would now identify me as the wife of Syed Fawad Ali Shah.”
Notably, Pakistan’s intelligence agencies have repeatedly tried to repatriate Shah in recent years. The government of Pakistan submitted several similar requests to Interpol which were rejected on the grounds that they were baseless.
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