Missing persons’: SC to hear cases on priority basis

Top court’s four separate benches to hear cases of missing persons, which are lying pending for the last several years

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali has decided to give priority to the cases of enforced disappearances in the remainder of his tenure.

The top court’s four separate benches will hear cases of missing persons, which are lying pending for the last several years. The five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali observed that 93 missing persons cases may be decided by four benches, comprising three members each, and may be fixed at least once in a month.

It also disposed of three appeals of two missing persons, Ghulam Sajad Amjad and Sajadul Hassan. The court also directed additional attorney general Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to ensure the meeting of Tasif Ali at Lakki Marwat internment center with his family, and submit its compliance report within a week.

During the course of hearing, Deputy Attorney General Sajid Ilyas Bhatti, in response to the list provided by Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), submitted the report of 37 missing persons. The report stated that Nasir Khan had been kept in Kohat internment center, Umara Khan in Pathom internment center Swat, Muhammad in Lakki Marwat internment centre and Muhammad Tayyab in Malakand internment center.

Additional advocate general Mian Arshad Jan requested the court to grant time frame of seven days for the verification of above mentioned internees, which was accepted by the top court.  The chief justice observed that there is a commission on missing persons headed by a retired SC judge, adding that it is appropriate to refer the cases to the said commission.

Upon this, Asma Jahangir, on behalf of HRCP, argued that due to the presence of the agents of Intelligence Bureau (IB), Military Intelligence (MI) and Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) on the commission premises, families of the missing persons could not pursue their cases out of fear. She further contended that instead of Civil Defense Building, the Commission should sit at a neutral place, adding that recovered missing persons should record their statement before respective magistrates for follow-ups and conclusion of the case.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 16^th, 2016.