Relatives of missing persons stand with pictures of their loved ones outside the high court. PHOTO: PPI
The Peshawar High Court (PHC) was informed on Thursday that 21 previously missing persons have been identified at various notified internment centres of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, while the search for the rest is under way.
While hearing a total of 492 petitions of enforced disappearances, a two-member bench comprising Justice Mian Fasihul Mulk and Justice Irshad Qaiser was informed by deputy attorney generals (DAG) Muzamil Khan and Farooq Shah that the government has identified 21 missing persons detained at various internment centres after paying visits to them. The provincial government was represented by additional advocate generals Mian Arshad Jan and Rab Nawaz Khan.
The DAGs said they were unable to produce a comprehensive report as previously ordered by the court owing to the resignation of Attorney General of Pakistan Munir A Malik and thus sought more time.
According to the Ministry of Defence report submitted before the bench, 19 missing persons are detained at the internment centre in Lakki Marwat and one each in Kohat and Ghallanai, Mohmand Agency. The Lakki Marwat detainees, include Muhammad Mehtab, Taj Muhammad, Mulazim Hussain, Mian Akbar, Dudrat Ali, Mian Anwer Ali, Khaliq Niaz, Aziz Ahmad, Muhammad Abid, Inamullah, Muhammad Akhtar Javaid, Inayatullah, Sajjid Hussain, Majid Hussain, Ameer Ahmad, Muhammad Khursheed, Qari Ziaur Rehman, Khalilullah and Abdul Qabeer.
Moreover, Bilal is detained at the internment centre in Kohat and Faiz Muhammad at Ghallanai. Meanwhile, a ground search for hundreds of other missing persons is ongoing, according to the report.
After accepting the report, the bench disposed of 18 missing persons’ petitions identified at the internment centres. The court also ordered the in charge of Lakki Marwat internment centre to allow family members of nine detainees to meet them.
The bench further asked the DAGs as to how long it will take to file a comprehensive report identifying all the missing persons, to which the state’s lawyers replied a month.
The court adjourned the case till February 26 with the order that the report be presented at the next hearing.
As on previous hearings, relatives of the missing persons were present outside the courtroom waiting for any news of their loved ones.
On December 10, a 25-page report filed by the Federal Task Force on Missing Persons was presented in the same courtroom putting the total number of missing persons traced and present at internment centres in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa at 643 and 64 in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).
According to that report, out of 64 detainees in Fata, 27 are in Ghallanai, 10 in Fort Slop, Khyber Agency, six in Landikotal, three in Alizai and one in Parachinar, Kurram Agency, three in Khar, Bajaur Agency and 14 are in Miranshah, North Waziristan Agency.
Those detained in various centres of K-P include 195 at Paithom and 72 in Fizaghat, Swat, 331 in Lakki Marwat, 35 in Kohat and 10 in Malakand.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 17th, 2014.
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Are these detentions legal or illegal as per Laws enshrined in the Constitution of Pakistan ? Does the Hon Court have an opinion or is it a part of the charade being played out as a game of cat and mouse ?