Journalist Aftab Iqbal 'goes missing' after detention at Dubai airport

Senior journalist and late night host Aftab Iqbal has gone missing after detention by airport authorities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), his daughter said Monday.

According to Ayesha Noor Iqbal, the journalist was arrested from an airport in Dubai upon his return from the United Kingdom (UK).

"He returned from the UK with my mother and the immigration authorities took him away. Later, they said he has a clean chit from the UAE govt but they gave no further details of where and how he is," she said.

Earlier, Iqbal's brother Junaid Iqbal also claimed that his eldest brother was "nowhere to be seen" since after his detention at the airport.

While there has been no official statement on his arrest, the journalist had earlier this month made headlines for hurling accusations at former Pakistani army chief Gen (r) Qamar Javed Bajwa.

Talking about his hit satirical show that was taken off air by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) in 2022, Iqbal had claimed that he made a parody song with visuals related to the then chief of army staff (COAS), which offended him. 

He said had he not made the parody, his show would never have gone off the air. 

“PEMRA is the instrument of a fascist imported govt which can’t tolerate any justifiable criticisms. My Programme, which is recognised as satire, has been forced off the air. Is this democracy worse than Mussolini’s fascist Italy? I intend to contest these illegal actions on every forum [sic],” the journalist had said in a statement in 2022.

Following the announcement, several journalists, politicians, and activists had called on the government to review the action, citing freedom of expression concerns.