The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday expressed its dissatisfaction over the parliament's response on the missing people's case.
The court bench, headed by Justice Raja Fiaz, said that it is the parliament's responsibility to take practical measures to have the missing people recovered.
Justice Fiaz said there are numerous questions on the Balochistan crisis which have been left unanswered.
He said the situation in the province is worsening day by day and more people are being killed or kidnapped in Balochistan.
He said the SC recovered 222 people, but 96 more went missing in the past three months.
Meanwhile, the additional Attorney General (AG) presented a report on the progress on the case to the court.
Updated from print edition (below)
‘Recover missing persons in two weeks’
Rejecting the government’s offer to give an in-camera briefing to the chief justice in the Baloch missing persons case, the Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday directed the Balochistan chief secretary to come up with positive results within two weeks.
The chief secretary has been assigned to recover missing lawyers and a Parsi woman kidnapped by unidentified persons a few days ago.
The court observed that if the situation was not controlled and law and order was not maintained, it would pass an order and the provincial government will be responsible for the consequences.
A three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, was hearing a petition filed by the Balochistan High Court Bar Association (BHCBA) against the target killing, kidnapping for ransom and poor law and order situation in the province.
The CJP noted that the families of Baloch missing persons had camped outside the National Press Club in Islamabad but even then the government seemed to be doing nothing and had failed to overcome the situation.
Petitioner Shakeel Ahmad Hadi told the court that three lawyers and a Parsi businesswoman Nelofar Abadan were kidnapped but law enforcement agencies had taken no action. He said that if the bureaucracy cannot control the deteriorating law and order situation in Balochistan then it should resign and let someone else to do this job.
The CJP said that according to Article 9 of the Constitution, federal and provincial governments are responsible for protecting the lives and dignity of its citizens.
Balochistan Advocate-General Amanullah Kanrani submitted that sectarianism is not the only issue disturbing the province’s law and order situation. He requested the court for an in-camera briefing, which the court turned down, directing him to submit a report within two weeks about the government’s progress in the situation.
The hearing was adjourned for two weeks.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 13th, 2011.
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