Missing Pakistani journalist's wife urges Anwar to locate her husband

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Syeda (right) with lawyer P Waytha Moorthy

KUALA LUMPUR - Wife of missing Pakistani journalist Syeda has urged Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and fellow Malaysians to help her in finding her husband, Syed Fawad Ali Shah.

"I appeal help from the prime minister and Malaysians to locate my husband.

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"I don’t know what will happen to me after this press conference but I will fight for my husband till my last breath,” she said during a press conference, here.

She further said that her husband liked Malaysia as it prioritised human rights.

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"My husband applied for a refugee status in Malaysia as the country respects human rights and it practices moderate Islam,” she Syeda, a Pakistani national.

Syeda also stressed that she will continue to fight to unravel the truth behind the dissapearance of her husband who has a United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) card.

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"We were married last year through an online ceremony. Last February, I came to Malaysia for a month to visit Fawad before returning to my homeland. I was pregnant.

"I used to contact my husband every night but on August 23 he was unreachable. I contacted his housemate and told to make a police report at Pantai police station in Brickfields over his disappearace.

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"After that, I contacted the investigating officer who informed me that the Putrajaya Imigration Department had detained my husband. The police did not investigate the matter further and handed it over to the imigration.

"I was asked to come to Malaysia and resolve the issue with immigration. Following that, I had a panic attack, in addition to high blood pressure and rapid heartbeat caused a miscarriage," she said.

Syeda then arrived in Malaysia on December 19 but failed to get any information over her husband's wherebouts.

She went to the Putrajaya Imigration Department last Friday.

"I saw a picture of my husband dressed in dark purple in the department's office. The officer suddenly hid the photo, the officer said that I was late and my husband was sent back to his hometown.

"How did the authorities send my husband home without informing his family? I asked for the details of my husband's flight ticket number and documents but they did not answer," she said.

Commenting further, Malaysian Advancement Party (MAP) president P Waytha Moorthy stressed that Malaysia should prioritised all human rights issues eventhough the country did not signed the convention on refugees.

"Malaysia being a member in the United Nations human rights community should hear out all human rights.

"As a lawyer, we will do whatever possible to help Syeda,” he said during the press conference.

Fawad, an exile Pakistani journalist in Malaysia has been missing since Aug 23.

Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin was the home minister in August. The portfolio has now been taken over by Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution under the unity government elected in last month.