Supreme Court hearing: K-P govt committee to trace missing persons

Apex court rejects dossier of federal govt, asks centre and province to file fresh reports.

ISLAMABAD: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government on Wednesday formed a three member committee to probe the disappearance of 35 missing persons from an internment centre in Malakand.

The committee has been given seven days to probe reports of the men going missing from an internment centre in Malakand, allegedly taken away by the military authorities on December 4, 2012.

K-P home secretary will head the probe committee, the Advocate General of K-P Latif Afridi stated before the three member bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Jawwad S Khawaja, which resumed hearing of the case of 35 missing persons on Wednesday.

The men, including Yasin Shah, had gone missing after the military authorities had allegedly taken them into custody from the Malakand internment centre.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had rejected a report by the federal government on missing persons, presented by Attorney General Salman Aslam Butt.

The apex court directed the attorney general and advocate general K-P to submit fresh reports till February 10.

Justice Jawwad, appreciating efforts of Additional Attorney General Tariq Khokhar in tracing the missing people, asked him to coordinate with advocate general of K-P in this matter.

The bench asked both the federal and provincial governments to take actions regarding the enforcement of 35 missing persons’ fundamental rights and if the executive would fail the court would pass appropriate order in this regard.