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Saturday, July 20, 2013
Missing persons’ case : ISI shows mistrust over AGP; wants to hire private counselStaff Report
ISLAMABAD: Showing mistrust in the office of the attorney general of Pakistan (AGP), the ISI has expressed its desire before the Supreme Court to engage a private counsel in the missing persons’ case.
However, a three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has expressed surprise over ISI’s written statement in which it has requested to engage a private counsel in the matter related to the disappearance of two persons in Chakwal. It is worth mentioning here that the police have already informed the court that both the persons are in the custody of the ISI.
The court noted in its order that it is very rare that a government department engage a private counsel in the presence of attorney general of Pakistan and the additional attorney general. The Military Intelligence (MI) has already hired a private counsel, Ibrahim Satti, in the missing persons’ case and he is defending the stance of the agency aggressively. He has argued that the court and police have no jurisdiction to proceed against serving army officials.
However, AGP Munir A Malik has contended that there is no provision in the Army Act, Criminal Procedure Court and Pakistan Penal Code that bars initiation of legal proceedings against the serving army officers. During the hearing of the two missing brothers’ case on Friday, Additional Attorney General of Pakistan (AAGP) Tariq Khokhar submitted a written statement on behalf of ISI Director (Legal) Muhammad Irfan.
According to his statement, the two persons, namely Umar Bakhat and Umar Hayat, are not being detained by the ISI. He also stated that ISI was considering to hire a private counsel in this matter. Upon this, the bench questioned why does the agency want to engage a private counsel when the senior law officer of the AGP officer was already assisting the court. It said that it seems that the ISI has no trust in the AGP office. The court has also made it clear that the notice was not issued to the ISI in the matter as they always served notices to federation through the Defence Ministry. Later on, it said in its order that any government department could hire a private counsel in any matter.
The court told the AAGP that the federal governments should now evolve a comprehensive policy after taking input from the departments concerned and adjourned the case until July 26. Meanwhile, during the hearing of another case, the court directed the capital police to proceed against retired Colonel Manzoor Akbar Cheema in enforced disappearance of Fazal-e-Rabbi strictly in accordance with law and submit a report within 10 days. The court was told that case had already been registered against the former army officer in Kohsar Police Station, Islamabad.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk