“No one should be under the illusion that the case will end as soon as I retire, my brother judges will not spare you,” says Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. PHOTO: FILE
With the tenure of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry coming to an end on December 11, the outgoing top judge on Monday hinted that the apex court will deliver a significant judgment in missing persons’ cases pending across the country’s courts today.
Attorney General Munir A Malik requested that the court refrain from rendering a judgment that could affect the operations of military authorities in the war theatre, and prevent them from holding suspects.
His request triggered a new debate in the court as the three-member bench asked whether the army has any constitutional or legal cover to detain citizens. The court also identified lacunas in existing legislation and said that, at present, there no notification that allows the army to conduct such activities in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).
“Under what authority did you abduct these people and why have our orders not been obeyed since 2005?” Justice Chaudhry asked the defence authorities, commenting that they considered themselves above the law. “No one is above the law,” he warned.
Justice Chaudhry asked the attorney general to explain to the court how enforced disappearances are allowed under the law. “It is now proven from the contradictory statements of defence officials that all persons were in the custody of the army authorities,” he said. He questioned the military’s operations regarding the disappearance, and sought details of all missing persons’ cases pending in the high courts and the apex court.
As per court records, 721 cases related to missing persons are pending in different courts across the country. Among these, 137 cases are pending before the Peshawar High Court, 165 in the Sindh High Court, 18 in the Balochistan High Court, 11 in the Lahore High Court and one case in the Islamabad High Court. As many as 45 cases are pending before the Supreme Court besides the 345 applications through the human rights cell of the apex court.
At the hearing, the chief justice remarked that if the prime minister wanted, he could resolve this issue within 24 hours.
“My 60 hours before retirement are equal to 60 years in terms of making sure the case proceeds in the right direction,” he said. “No one should be under the illusion that the case will end as soon as I retire, my brother judges will not spare you,” Justice Chaudhry said to acting defence secretary Major General (retd) Arif Nazir and Defence Minister Khawaja Asif.
The bench expressed its displeasure over the authorities’ failure to produce the 35 missing persons in the court, and repeatedly asked to be given “legal justifications” of enforced disappearances of citizens.
“No illegal action should be taken on the basis of national interest,” the chief justice observed.
The defence ministry did not produce any of the remaining prisoners on Monday but did present a report detailing the status of the rest of the detainees. Defence Minister Khawaja Asif told the court that two out of five missing persons have been identified and that they would be presented within a few days.
When the court expressed its displeasure over “unobeyed” orders, Asif said, “Our intentions are good.”
Balochistan law and order
The same bench of the apex court, while resuming the contempt of court case, has taken strong exception to the absence of the Frontier Corps inspector-general.
Irfan Qadir said that the IG could not appear in court as he was ill and admitted to the hospital. The court said that another grade officer holding command of the FC as per set rules could have appeared. However, the court noted in its order that no satisfactory answer was received from the defence authorities and the court ordered the secretary of the interior to clarify whether a notification for acting IG was issued or not.
“We have nothing to do with an individual; we issue a contempt notice to the IG, FC, for not cooperating in the investigation of missing persons in Balochistan,” the court maintained.
The court also said that FC officials did not record statements as they were blamed in the enforced disappearances case. The bench also took exception to the fact that no one from the government had approached the relatives of missing persons camped outside Karachi Press Club for the recovery of their dear ones.
The court adjourned the case till tomorrow (December 10).
Published in The Express Tribune, December 10th, 2013.
COMMENTS (4)
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The Chief Justice as well as the Apex court judges have only been issuing ultimatums to senior defence officials and falling short of taking any action against them for eight long years shows the supremacy of the military over a weak judiciary in Pakistan. Such an un-precedented weak stand of the judiciary against the powerful establishment emboldened them to continue the unlawful abductions as well as the killings under its custody. An episode telecasted on GEO TV yesterday by Hamid Mir on Balochis long march was heart-rendering in which the hapless people poured out the woeful tales of security forces abducting their brothers and sons who have never been returned, and no information was provided to them despite running from pillar to post. One could draw a fair deduction from the interviews that many such abductions increased during the past few years with total disregard to law and judicial system who were supposed to be pursuing these cases with utmost vigour during this period. Pakistan and its security forces too have not learned any lesson from the genocide carried out in East Pakistan which dismembered the country and another one happening soon should not surprise anybody.
@Mirza: You are right! The PCO CJ is all of a sudden becoming a strong populist leader who has not shown such urgency in this case since 2005 in his own words. Instead of letting his decisions do the talking he is sounding like a cheap political leader who is media hungry.
"My brother judges will not spare you"... These are the comments of a person who happens to be the CJ SC.
"“Under what authority did you abduct these people and why have our orders not been obeyed since 2005?” Justice Chaudhry asked" Why did it take eight long years and an extension for CJ to be this bold? Why was the court sitting and waiting for so long now a few days before his final retirement. Without the support of last army chief his extension was not possible.