Missing persons: Court orders report on all petitions being heard

1,984 petitions have been received, at least 1,327 such cases remain pending.

PESHAWAR:

The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has sought a comprehensive report on all enforced disappearance petitions being heard by the Supreme Court, missing persons’ commission and PHC, simultaneously. On Thursday while hearing petitions, the PHC chief justice noted once again that if detainees are involved in seditious activities.

The report was ordered by a division bench of Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Malik Manzoor Hussain while hearing petitions of missing persons. Additional Attorney General Syed Attique Shah, deputy attorney generals (DAG) Manzoor Khalil and Kifayatullah, Ministry of Defence Director Legal Wing Commander Muhammad Irfan, Ministry of Interior (MoI) Deputy Secretary Syed Safeer Hussain and Additional Advocate General Mian Arshad Jan appeared for the hearing.

Shah produced a report before the bench which stated a total of 1,984 petitions have been received in which 209 were registered in April, 2014. The commission has so far disposed of 657 cases while 1,327 such petitions are still pending.

The bench was further provided reports on different cases in which the Inter-Services Intelligence denied it has the missing persons in its custody while the replies of MoI are still incomplete.

Connecting dots

The court ordered the Bannu commissioner to also compile a report stating the progress of oversight boards in all internment centres which come under his authority. The court determined the report should be produced before June 11, the next date of hearing.

CJ Miankhel argued he has reports on the health of detainees in internment centres, which is not satisfactory. They are not provided medical facilities, he stated. If detainees are involved in any kind of anti-state activities then they need to be charged accordingly; those not accused of criminal involvement should not be detained, said the chief justice.

The court also sought an account from the Frontier Corps inspector general in the case of Talib Khan who has been detained in Landikotal Fort since February 2012. How many people have been captured in this period, questioned the bench.

The Hangu district police officer was also summoned by the court in a separate case in which Haji Mir Rehman was picked up in 2009 while Colonel Adnan was also directed to submit his comments for this instance.

Visitation rights

The division bench then ordered Lakki Marwat internment centre head Sabz Ali, who was present, to facilitate a meeting between the families and two detainees from Rahim Yar Khan and DI Khan, respectively.

On Wednesday, CJ Miankhel had said petitions of enforced disappearances are continuously being delayed as in each case the government seeks more time for ground work.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 16^th, 2014.