On Monday, presiding judge Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani said that the intelligence agencies should shed the perception of their involvement in forced abductions.

Shah was allegedly abducted from his home last week. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan had called on the authorities for his immediate release.

Last Wednesday, his wife approached the IHC and requested that he be found and produced before the court and to identify, investigate and prosecute those responsible for his disappearance.

Justice Kayani had ordered Senior Superintendent of Police Jameel Zafar to retrieve Shah at any cost, warning that he would otherwise summon the defence secretary. The judge had issued a notice to the defence secretary in the next hearing.

Hours later, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said that all the institutions should work within their constitutional domains.

At a press conference, he said that the government was ready to provide full assistance to the police for the recovery of the missing poet Ahmed Farhad.

The defence ministry had told the court through the additional attorney general that Farhad was not in the custody of any institution, he added.