Masood Janjua missing case: Top court seeks affidavits of six army officers

Court to determine cross-examination method of officers, including Musharraf, after submission.

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Court asked the deputy attorney general to submit affidavits of six out of the eleven army officers through the Ministry of Defence in the case of Amina Masood Janjua, who had alleged that the officers knew the whereabouts of her husband Masood Ahmad Janjua.

On Thursday, the deputy attorney-general informed the court that five officers have already submitted their affidavits and are waiting for the remaining officers named in the petition to file theirs.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who is heading the three-member bench of the apex court, said, “The case is sensitive and we will hear it once the affidavits of all the accused officers, duly attested by the defence ministry, are submitted.”

He asked for the affidavits to be submitted within ten days.

The court had earlier observed that after all the affidavits are put forward, they would make a decision regarding the method of cross-examining the officers in question. The court will also determine the methodology to cross-examine other officers, including former president Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf, who Amina Janjua alleges also had a role in the ‘forced disappearance of her husband’.

Earlier, Amina submitted a list of military and intelligence persons to be cross-examined, who have already filed their statements regarding her husband’s disappearance since July 30, 2005.

The names of military and intelligence agency officers include Col Jehangir Akhtar, Col Habibullah, Brig Mansoor Saeed Sheikh, Lt Gen Nusrat Naeem, Lt Gen Shafqaat Ahmad and Lt Gen Nadeem Taj.

She also included the name of former attoney general Malik Abdul Qayyum, asking for him to be interrogated as well.

She requested the apex court to prosecute the ‘culprits who tried to misguide the court by producing fake affidavits’.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 11^th, 2013.