Missing persons case: K-P govt gets 24 hours to lodge FIR

Army officials to be charged with the removal of 35 missing persons from Malakand.

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has thrown down the gauntlet at the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa authorities over the registration of an FIR against army officials allegedly involved in the illegal removal of 35 undeclared inmates from an internment centre in Malakand.

Islamabad police referred its report on the federal government’s complaint regarding the lodging of an FIR to the K-P government. A three-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Jawwad Khawaja has given the K-P government a day to register an FIR and adjourned the hearing till today (Friday).

Attorney General for Pakistan Salman Aslam Butt said that the Secretariat police station SHO Abdul Rehman referred its report to the Malakand police station under Section 25.3 of the Police Rules 1934 for the registration of an FIR as Yasin Shah, one of the missing persons, was a resident of a village under the police station’s jurisdiction.

The bench asked K-P Advocate General Latif Yousufzai if any action has been taken by the provincial government regarding the registration of an FIR. Yousufzai said Malakand’s deputy commissioner is examining the matter because Islamabad police did not mention the sections under which an FIR would be lodged against army officials.

The court expressed annoyance at the K-P government and observed that the capital police did not need to mention these sections in the report.

The attorney general told the court that in compliance with the court’s December 2013 ruling, a complaint has been filed by Defence Minister Khawaja Asif to Secretariat police station SHO on Wednesday regarding the registration of an FIR against Naib Subedar Amanullah Baig and others regarding the removal of the 35 missing persons two years ago.

During the hearing, the court also welcomed the federal government’s decision to file a complaint for the registration of an FIR against army officials. “It is a good sign that the law was set in motion and the rule of law prevails in the country,” Justice Jawwad observed.

“Our work is complete,” AG Salman Aslam Butt told The Express Tribune, adding, “However, we will also try to recover the remaining missing persons.”

However, counsel for the defence ministry Raja Muhammad Irshad said that army officials feel they have not been adequately represented before the court in this case as the attorney general did not present the military official’s stance before the bench. “I am very disturbed by this situation,” he said, “because the court did not hear the army’s point of view in this case.”

The defence ministry had earlier suggested that the case be transferred from Additional Attorney General Tariq Khokhar to any other senior law officer, but former attorney general Munir A Malik rejected this plea.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 21^st, 2014.