IHC orders MI report on disappearance

IHC questions utility of Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances

Listen to article

ISLAMABAD:

The capital's high court has ordered Military Intelligence's (MI) chief to submit a report in a sealed envelope on the disappearance of Mudassar Khan, a man who went missing from AJK a few months back.

A single-member bench of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) comprising Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani on Tuesday heard a petition filed by Khan's wife Nazima Fatehyab through her counsel Imaan Mazari. Calling into question the utility of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, the judge noted that it neither performs its duties nor allows others to do so.

"What is the point of a commission that does not function? It should be shut down. If the commission were working, why would the petitioner have to approach the court?" He asked

During the hearing, the assistant attorney general and a representative of the Ministry of Defense appeared on behalf of the federal government.

The assistant attorney general informed the court that the petitioner's husband had gone missing from Muzaffarabad, the capital of the AJK, and that an FIR had been registered there.

Lawyer Imaan Mazari stated that the case had been under review by the commission since August, and on November 18, the petitioner received a call from an unknown number. "The caller, claiming to be the petitioner's husband, said he was in the custody of an agency."

She referred to Kashmiri poet Ahmed Farhad's case, who had also gone missing in Islamabad and was later located at a police station of the AJK after the court's intervention.

She said Farhad's wife had also been conveyed over the phone that if she withdrew her petition filed in the IHC, her husband would return home within a few days.

Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani said he wanted to hear from the officials in an in-camera briefing before proceeding further. The court directed the MI director general to submit a report in a sealed envelope on case and adjourned till Dec 27.