Missing persons: Inquiry Commission disposes of 12 cases

40 cases remaining, next hearing will be held on May 3.

QUETTA:

The Inquiry Commission set up by the Supreme Court for the recovery of missing persons, concluded its four-day hearing here in Quetta on Friday, during which it disposed of 12 out of 52 cases of Baloch missing persons.

The retired judge of the Balochistan High Court Fazalur Rehman presided over the hearings where relatives of the missing persons, officials of secret agencies, police, Balochistan Levies, security forces and the home ministry appeared and recorded their statements before the Commission.

Talking to the media, secretary Inquiry Commission Fareed Ahmed Khan said that nine missing persons had returned home safe while two of them were not actual missing persons, hence, their names had been withdrawn from the list. He added that the mother of another missing person also withdrew her case. “The Commission disposed of nine out of 53 cases during the four days of hearing and it will produce its report before the Supreme Court in the next hearing,” he told the media.

He said that the Commission would hold its next hearing in Quetta on May 3, during which it will deliberate over the recoded statements of the relatives of missing persons.

The Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VFBMP), an organisation striving for the immediate recovery of the missing persons, boycotted the hearing of the Inquiry Commission, saying that the Commission is powerless and simply wasting the country’s time and resources. “It is the second Commission set up by the Supreme Court. When the commission that was step up earlier did not produce its report, how can we trust the new one?” questioned Nasurllah Baloch, chairman VFBMP.

“If the Commission recovered even one missing person, it should produce a detailed report about where and how they were discovered,” he added.

Nasurllah said that the few missing persons who had returned home were released as a result of their own efforts and sources, adding that the judiciary had no role in any of it.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 9^th, 2011.