‘Please help find my husband’ – wife of missing Pakistani journo pleads with PM

Pakistani journalist Syed Fawad Ali Shah’s whereabouts remain unknown to the public and his wife is appealing to Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim for help in locating her missing husband.

Syed Fawad is a 41-year-old Pakistani investigative journalist in his home country, known for probing government corruption and missing persons via several English dailies.

He has been living in exile in Malaysia for over 10 years to escape persecution in Pakistan and is said to be a UNHCR card holder.

His wife, who is also of Pakistani origin and wished to be identified as Syeda for her safety, spoke at a press conference today on her ordeal, attempting to locate her husband who has been missing since Aug 23.

“I need your support at this moment. I don’t know what will happen to me after this press conference, I just know that I will fight for my husband until my last breath,” said Syeda, who flew into Malaysia on Dec 19 to find her missing husband.

“I appeal to the Malaysian public and all humanitarian organisations to help in any possible way.

“I am going through a very critical phase of my life. I am asking for help from the prime minister to find my husband. I’m very worried about him. Please, help me,” she added.

Syeda, who is a teacher, claimed the pressure to locate Syed Fawad has burdened her mental and physical health, disclosing that she suffered from a miscarriage amid the trauma of her husband’s disappearance.

“Before my husband went missing, we found out I was pregnant and were very happy to start a family but I started having panic attacks and high blood pressure, which resulted in us losing our child,” she said, adding that it was her first pregnancy.

Syeda, who is based in Pakistan, married Syed Fawad through an online ceremony in 2021, eventually uniting in Langkawi earlier this year on Feb 1, 2022.

The press conference today was attended by P Waythamoorthy and Karthigesan Shanmugam, who are serving as Syeda’s counsel.

According to Karthigesan, he received orders from Syed Fawad’s wife to seek intervention from the judiciary once they have exhausted all other options to locate Fawad, adding that they would go to court if need be.

There are contradicting accounts of the series of events surrounding Syed Fawad’s disappearance.

According to an FMT report, sources from the Foreign Ministry reportedly claimed the 41-year-old journalist was still in Malaysia, while Fawad’s spouse claimed a sympathetic immigration officer revealed she was “too late” and that her husband had been deported to Pakistan.

When visiting immigration authorities in Putrajaya on Dec 23, however, Syeda was told there was no record of her husband’s arrest in the immigration data system.

Malaysiakini is attempting to contact the police, immigration authorities, and the Pakistan High Commission for comments on the matter.

UNHCR: Protect asylum seekers

A spokesperson from UNHCR in Kuala Lumpur declined to comment on the details of individual cases such as Syed Fawad’s.

However, its spokesperson reiterated that asylum seekers in need of international protection cannot be returned to their countries of origin.

“In general, as a matter of practice, UNHCR consistently advocates that refugees and asylum seekers – having been confirmed or claimed to be in need of international protection – cannot be returned to their countries of origin.

“This is according to the principle of non-refoulment, which prevents states from expelling or returning persons to a territory where their life or freedom would be threatened,” said the UNHCR spokesperson.

The UNHCR added that the principle is recognised as customary international law, which is binding for all states, regardless of whether or not they have signed the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.

“Furthermore, UNHCR has not received approval from the immigration authorities to access immigration detention centres since August 2019, despite continuous advocacy from UNHCR and others on this matter.

“This has unfortunately prevented us from seeing detained persons of concern in order to verify their refugee status, to determine if they are of concern to UNHCR and in need of international protection, and to prevent deportation for those verified to be refugees and asylum-seekers,” the spokesperson told Malaysiakini.

“With the recent developments of deportation, there is an even greater concern that there remains in detention a number of individuals - including highly vulnerable persons - whose refugee status has not yet been verified, and requires our attention,” added the spokesperson, repeating the call for immediate access to those who may be in need of its protection.

Meanwhile, Reporters Without Borders Asia-Pacific director Daniel Bastard deemed it to be “extremely disturbing” that the Malaysian authorities are still unable to pin down Syed Fawad’s location.

In a statement, Bastard said the inability of local authorities to protect a refugee was a sign of incompetence.

“Let’s not be fooled. If Syed Fawad is still in Malaysia, it means local authorities are not able to protect a refugee on their own soil, which is a clear sign of incompetence.

“If he has been deported, it means they knowingly breached their international obligations towards the United Nations Human Rights Council,” Bastard added.

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