ISLAMABAD – Government has succeeded partially to satisfy the apex court while submitting a compliance report regarding the formulation of a judicial commission headed by a retired Supreme Court judge to solve out the issue of missing persons.
A three-member bench of the Supreme Court on Monday directed the Secretary Ministry of Foreign Affairs to submit a complete report on Pakistanis languishing in various jails in foreign countries. The bench comprising Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Mohammad Sair Ali and Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali hearing the missing personsÂ’ case also ordered Pakistani Ambassadors to ensure release of Pakistani prisoners, especially in Thailand. Amina Masood, Chairperson Defence of Human Rights, informed the court that a large number of Pakistanis were languishing in ThailandÂ’s prisons and three out of them had become mad. The Government should be instructed to ensure their release soon, she added.
Additional Attorney General K K Agha told the court that the Government had appointed a former SC judge, Justice (Retd) Kamal Mansur Alam, as Chairman Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearance in place of Justice (Retd) Sardar Mohammad Raza Khan who had refused to head the Commission due to personal reasons. The other members of the Commission are Justice (Retd) Nasira Iqbal, ex-judge of Lahore High Court, and Justice (Retd) Fazal-ur-Rehman, a retired judge of Balochistan High Court, he added.
The meeting of the Commission would be held in the next week, the AAG said. He informed that the Commission would prepare a comprehensive list of the missing persons with all relevant information. It will collect evidence or testimony of missing persons and examine and compile a list of persons whose custody was at first denied but subsequently admitted and about their present status. The Commission will recommend appropriate procedures for tracing missing persons, and appropriate compensation to the victims of enforced disappearances. It will also fix responsibility on individuals or organisations responsible for enforced disappearance of persons, and will also suggest ways and means to prevent the recurrence of such incidence.
The Commission shall have power to summon record and persons, record evidence and recommend appropriate relief and compensation to the victims of enforced disappearances. Non-compliance of direction in this respect shall be punishable. It will also have power to order a police investigation into any matter coming before it. The AAG also submitted report of persons missing in the Lal Mosque incident. He said that the police had taken the DNA sample of 23 bodies jointly buried in a grave, but so far no one had claimed about these bodies.
Ikram Chaudhary, former vice-president of Supreme Court Bar Association, while dismissing the AAG report, argued that the figures given in it were outdated. He said that, according to his information, 400 to 500 persons were still missing in the Lal Mosque tragedy.
Justice alleviating the concerns of missing persons’ families said, “We are not disassociating ourselves from the missing persons’ case but also do not like to interfere in the Commission’s matter.” He said Justice (Retd) Fazal-ur-Rehman, former judge of BHC, would thoroughly probe into the matter, adding the Commission would determine the exact number of missing persons. The maximum missing persons are from Balochistan and it was a burning issue for the province.
Director Operation Ministry of Interior informed that FIRs in all the missing persons cases had been registered, but so far no progress had been made.
Kamran Doost, Home Secretary Sindh, informed the court that out of nine missing persons, they had traced six, while the remaining three had link with jihadi organisations.