The chief justice remarked that before shifting detainees to any internment facility, they would have been in the custody of any of the numerous agencies and this is not progress in their eyes. PHOTO: FILE
The Peshawar High Court (PHC) was informed on Wednesday that the oversight board dealing with cases of detainees at the Lakki Marwat internment centre has sent its findings of 21 cases to the home and tribal affairs department. The said cases were reviewed in the eighth meeting of the oversight board.
The information was shared by a representative of the Bannu commissioner during the hearing of 27 petitions of enforced disappearances before Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth.
Additional Attorney General (AAG) Syed Attique Shah, Deputy Attorney General Manzoor Khalil, Additional Advocate General Mian Arshad Jan and Major Muhammad Ali of the Ministry of Defence appeared before the court.
The representatives said the relevant authorities had conducted eight meetings so far wherein they have reviewed 21 cases of detainees and sent their report to the home and tribal affairs department which will forward it to the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa chief minister for a final decision.
According to Section 14 of the Action (in aid of civil power) Regulations, 2011, “The governor shall notify an oversight board comprising two civilians and two military officers for each internment centre to review the case of each person interned within a period of time not exceeding 120 days from the issuance of the order of internment and prepare a report for consideration of the governor.”
The AAG informed the bench that on the directives of the court, they mobilised all relevant agencies to speed up efforts so substantial information is produced before the court in the missing persons’ cases.
“We want to produce some positive information regarding the progress in every case related to the missing persons. That is why we have given more time to a ground check so complete information can be gathered,” Shah said.
He further stated that in these 27 cases, ten people have been interned at various centres running in the federally and provincially administrated tribal areas. They were detained by the interning authority defined in the action (in aid of civil power) regulations.
The chief justice remarked that before shifting detainees to any internment facility, they would have been in the custody of any of the numerous agencies and this is not progress in their eyes.
The court observed that on a previous hearing on May 15, a show-cause notice issued to the Ministry of Interior secretary was withdrawn on the AAG’s personal request, however, nothing has been submitted in black and white. It stated further that the interior secretary should be put on a show-cause notice to explain why proceedings under the law should not be initiated against him for not complying with the high court’s orders.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 12th, 2014.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ