Enforced disappearances: Malakand commissioner, internment centre in charge issued notices

PHC CJ irked over method of handing over bodies of missing persons.

PESHAWAR:

The Malakand commissioner and PAITHOM internment centre in charge were issued show-cause notices for not submitting reports of oversight boards in cases of various detainees earlier deemed ‘missing’.

Peshawar High Court (PHC) Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Haider Ali Khan issued the notices and asked them to explain why action should not be taken against them for not complying with the court’s orders. The notices were issued as the bench heard 12 petitions on enforced disappearances on Thursday.



In the past, bodies were shifted to various police stations but now authorities are handing over the remains of previously missing persons from internment centres, remarked CJ Miankhel.

The PHC learnt Afreen, the husband of Ayesha, was picked up from Bakhsho Pul, Peshawar in 2010. His family had registered an FIR with the Khazana police station on the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances’ order.

The court was informed that Lieutenant Colonel Hamid Rashid of the Military Intelligence (MI) has told the commission that Afreen was shifted to an internment centre but the family does not know which one. The bench then issued a notice to the commission, asking it to inform the court about the detainee.

In another petition, Abdul Latif, brother of Habib Khan, shared Habib went missing on June 17, 2010 from Bajaur Agency. Latif said Habib’s body was, however, handed over to the family from a hospital. He asked the court to withdraw his petition.

However, the bench replied the PHC will not return the petition as it wants answers from the relevant authorities.

Muhammad Rehman said one of his brothers, Ali Rehman, is interned in PAITHOM while his second brother Sajid Ali is detained at the centre in Lakki Marwat. The court then ordered reports of oversight boards in  these cases.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 14^th, 2014.