Newly appointed Minister for Defence Khawaja Asif. PHOTO: REUTERS.
The court had earlier on Thursday ordered the federal government today to recover 35 Baloch missing persons by December 2.
Asif, as the Defence Minister, appeared before the four-member larger bench – headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry – along with the attorney general and Balochistan leaders on Thursday at the Karachi registry of the Supreme Court.
Speaking to the media after the hearing, Asif said the apex court had warned the federal government that the SC would take action against the relevant authorities if the said 35 individuals were not produced by Monday morning.
While responding to questions, Khawaja Asif also said that the federal government had finalised several legislative drafts on the issue of missing persons, which will be turned into law very soon.
The Minister said it was the responsibility of the state to locate missing persons and that no one could be detained without due process of law.
Earlier, Asif told the court that during the short period of four months‚ the government was able to locate 738 missing persons and it would make every effort to locate others.
Expressing dissatisfaction over the progress of the case, the chief justice said people had pinned their hopes on the new government but the situation had not changed.
Quoting instances where many people were abducted with the help of helicopters, the larger bench stated that the name of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) keeps coming up in the case.
The bench further said that the Frontier Corps (FC) is responsible for the law and order situation in the province and asked the FC IG to appear before the court and explain the security situation.
Chief Justice Chaudhry also mentioned the group of relatives of Baloch missing persons that walked from Karachi to Quetta on foot and said it was embarrassing that women and children had to come all the way here to seek justice.
He said they will not leave until their relatives are recovered.
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During the case hearing the CJ Iftitkhar Chaudhry remarked that he had evidence that the Police had handed over the ' missing persons', to the Intelligence agencies.If it is true,then they are not ' missing persons ',and record exist.What and whose purpose the CJ wants to fill by calling these persons in the court.Is he playing to 'gallery',or wants to defame some?.The relatives could be told that they are with the authorities and ask the government to arrange meeting at an appropriate time.
Another one of those Kashmiri pledges, after the shameful backtrack on the "tayer-e-lahooti" campaign. And i don't care if it doesn't sound PC enough.
Baloch is Patriotic
i wonder what is he going to achieve first - end of loadshedding or recover missing persons!?
good thing is that he has not mentioned the year. but he is sure to resolve by December 10 of any year.
CJP is all set to create some more trouble for Pakistan and its institutions. His remarks are are offensive especially those governing the use of language.
Hope this actually happens.
The real culprit in the whole saga of Missing Persons is the Intelligence wing of Pakistan Army which treats Pakistanis as some sort of scums. The Pakistan Government should institute an internal inquiry into this matter and bring to book those responsible for this crime. Will the Government have courage to take this bold step? I wonder.
First Osama and then Masood are big question marks on army's intelligence. Instead of kidnapping innocent citizens I hope ISI learns to do its job.
Hahaha another deadline. Like he was going to end load shedding within 6 months !
hope it happens... if he is able to recover all missing persons, he will be the true Pakistani..