A final warning: Peshawar High Court enraged by defence and interior ministries

Court gives authorities final chance to file reply in missing persons’ cases

PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court division bench expressed severe resentment over the failure of the interior and defence ministries to file a reply in the case of a missing person from Swat and issued a final warning to the authorities.

The bench, comprising Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Qaiser Rasheed, was informed that Sardar Alam, a resident of Swat, had been missing since 2008. It was stated no reply had been filed by the authorities despite several notices.

Justice Rasheed asked for reasons behind the federal ministries’ failure to submit replies in missing persons’ cases.

Deputy Attorney General Musaratullah and Additional Advocate General Qaiser Ali Shah appeared before the bench and stated the provincial government was unaware of Alam’s detention and had said so in its reply.

Musratullah informed the bench the federal ministries had not submitted their replies although they had been contacted several times. He requested the court for more time to file their replies by the next date of hearing.

In another missing persons’ case, detainee Attaur Rahman’s lawyer Taimur Haider Khan thanked the court for allowing his client’s family to meet the suspect. He informed the bench Rehman was placed in the ‘black category’ or militant category in March 2015, but was still awaiting trial.

Chief Justice Miankhel asked the AAG to explain why the trial had not commenced even though the suspect had been placed in a category.

The bench, after hearing the arguments, directed authorities to file a detailed reply in Rehman’s case.

Asked to leave

The same bench also directed the provincial government to file a reply after the Peshawar Development Authority asked 15 private educational institutions to vacate their respective premises in Hayatabad.

An application was filed by the educational institutions through advocate Asghar Kundi. He informed the bench these institutions were in different sectors and PDA ordered they shift their businesses from residential areas.

He argued PDA had not provided any alternate space for the institutes. He contended the PDA adopted dual policies and allotted 40 kanals of land to a college and several kanals to private universities.

Kundi informed the bench the institutions, which had been ordered to vacate, had been providing an education for three decades. He requested the court to stop the PDA from executing the eviction and to order the authority to provide alternate arrangements. The bench asked PDA and the provincial government to submit replies in this regard.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 13^th, 2016.