Balochistan target killing case: FC Balochistan not under province’s control, SC told

Court seeks explanation as to why FC officials are not cooperating with police in missing persons cases.

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Court on Thursday sought an explanation from authorities concerned after learning that Frontier Corps (FC) Balochistan was not cooperating with the police in the investigation of the missing persons’ cases.

During the hearing of the Balochistan target killing case, counsel for the Balochistan government Shahid Hamid told the court that of the 16 FC officials nominated in missing persons cases, none had appeared before the police to record their statements. To the surprise of the bench, he said that FC Balochistan was not under the effective control of the provincial government.

Upon this, the bench sought an explanation from the paramilitary force as to why its officials were not cooperating with the police. The bench also summoned the secretaries of defence and interior on February 23 to provide an explanation on the matter.



In response, counsel for the FC Irfan Qadir said many of the senior FC officials nominated in cases had reverted back to the army and, as such, were very difficult to trace. He added, however, that he was ready to ensure those nominated officials who were still serving with the FC presented themselves before the police.

A representative of the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons Nasrullah Baloch told the bench that there was evidence that intelligence agencies were involved in several cases of enforced disappearances.

He said neither the FC nor the intelligence agencies were implementing the directions of the Balochistan High Court regarding the recovery of missing persons and requested the court to make Justices Jawwad S Khawaja and Khilji Arif Hussain part of the bench since they were ‘well aware’ of each case of enforced disappearance.

“The Supreme Court is our last and only hope,” Baloch said.

The bench observed that intelligence agencies make themselves clear about the allegations of enforced disappearances.

Meanwhile, with regards to the security of doctors in Balochistan, the bench was told that 80 doctors had left the province out of fear and over a hundred more were likely to leave unless the government provided medical professionals more security soon.

Representative of the Pakistan Medical Association’s Balochistan chapter Abdul Malik Baloch said that the organisation had requested security for 300 out of 5,000 doctors in the province but only 24 doctors had been provided security so far. He added that no culprit behind the abductions of doctors for ransom in the province had been arrested.

The provincial government’s counsel told the bench that roughly Rs300 million a month would be needed to provide security to the doctors.

The bench, however, directed the Balochistan government to look into doctors’ security concerns. The hearing of the case was adjourned till February 13.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 31^st, 2014.