Progress in the missing person Masood Janjua case at the Supreme Court. PHOTO:AFP/FILE
Additional Attorney General Tariq Khokhar submitted a total of seven affidavits before the Supreme Court, including that of former Attorney General Malik Abdil Qayoom, former Interior Secretary Syed Kamal Shah, former Director General National Crisis Management Cell Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema and former Secretary Defence Syed Athar Ali Abbas.
The three-member bench headed by Justice Jawwad S Khawaja rejected the affidavit of former Defence Secretary Syed Athar Ali Abbas, directing him to re-submit fresh documents before the next hearing.
While most of the affidavits were presented openly, those of Col (retd) Jehangir Akhtar and Brig (retd) Mansoor Saeed were presented in sealed envelops.
Upon reviewing the affidavits, the court rejected the pleas for confidentiality and made them public.
Assistant Director (Legal) Ministry of Defence Waseem Qureshi requested the court for additional time for the affidavits for four other officers implicated. Qureshi explained that the men were retired army officials and that the General Headquarters (GHQ) had to be consulted before their information could be provided.
The court adjourned the case for three weeks, noting that the bench would pass its orders after all 11 affidavits are filed.
In October 2013, the Supreme Court had 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 listed officers knew the whereabouts of her husband Masood Ahmad Janjua.
The deputy attorney-general had informed the court that five of the officers had already submitted their affidavits and are waiting for the remaining officers named in the petition to file theirs.
Then Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who was heading the three-member bench of the apex court, had said that “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.”
The court had then asked for the affidavits to be submitted within ten days.
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If the missing persons were involved in terrorism, in that case they cannot be tried by normal courts due to lack of evidence / witnesses.
@Shaikh Mohommad: If missing persons have gone to 'terrorists' camp,who will produce them.
Why is the Government not active in tracing the missing persons? Those responsible should be brought to book and publicly exposed. Instead of trying the persons before a court, the authorities have merely put them behind bars without knowledge of the near and dear ones of the persons concerned. This is highly condemnable. The authorities should co-operate with the judiciary and produce the missing persons.