Missing persons investigation: Agencies move job to judicial panel

Commission recommends that secret agencies be subjected to the rule of law.

ISLAMABAD:

A committee comprising the heads of secret agencies and senior officials of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has transferred all the cases of missing persons to the Commission of Inquiry and Enforced Disappearances, without making any progress on its own.

“Agencies don’t want to interfere in civilian affairs,” one of the committee members observed. The civilian authorities have the ability to resolve the dilemma of enforced disappearances, he added. The government constituted the committee headed by Defence Secretary in January, this year, to look into the cases of missing persons.

“It is a very complicated issue, yes, but agencies cannot continue to engage with members of the newly constituted commission to trace missing persons,” he told The Express Tribune without going into details.

Directors General Inter Services Intelligence and Military Intelligence, Additional Secretary and Director Legal, MOD, a senior official of the Judge Advocate General department of the GHQ, Director Operations, ministry of interior and Additional Attorney General were members of the committee.

Justice (Retd) Fazlur Rehman is heading the two-member commission for missing persons recently constituted by the Ministry of Interior on the Supreme Court’s directions. Former inspector general police Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Muhammad Sharif Virk is also a member.

Earlier this year, the judicial commission had recommended drafting new legislation to bring the operations of secret agencies ‘within the ambit of law’ in its report which was submitted to the Supreme Court. To monitor cases of enforced disappearances, the apex court had constituted a special cell for missing persons. Around 136 cases of enforced disappearances have yet to be traced while new cases have come to light.

According to the report of the National Crisis Management Cell of the Interior Ministry, the committee conducted various proceedings till March 30 and traced four persons, namely Inayatullah, Kashif Iqbal, Chakar Khan Marri and Qaiser Iftikhar. During the course of proceedings, committee members discussed ten cases of enforced disappearances for which the judicial commission had collected sufficient evidence, the report stated.

The committee’s secretary, Director Legal MoD, Lt Col Sarfraz Khan briefed members about legal complications which have arisen in tracking missing persons.

Meanwhile, the newly constituted commission traced three more persons during the hearing of missing persons’ cases in Karachi. It will continue to hear their cases on Tuesday. Last week, 11 out of 63 missing persons were traced in Balochistan, according to the Secretary of the commission, Fareed Khan.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 12^th, 2011.