Friday, June 28, 2013

SC seeks govt’s strategy for recovery of missing persons

By Hasnaat Malik

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has sought a plan of action by July 1 from the newly elected government of the PML-N regarding the recovery of missing persons.
A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Jawwad S Khawaja, is hearing the cases of disappeared persons on a daily basis.
The Military Intelligence (MI) on June 11 had already submitted a reply in the missing persons case and objected that the SC and the police had no jurisdiction to proceed against any serving army officer under the Army Act, 1952. As Attorney General of Pakistan Munir A Malik will submit a comprehensive strategy to end the forced disappearances of people in the country on July 1, the court on Thursday expected that the government evolved an effective strategy in the matter.
It has been learnt that according to the new government’s plan of action regarding the recovery of missing persons, a special cell will be established in the AGP office for ensuring the implementation of court’s orders in the matter. Last week, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had also assured lawmakers that cases of missing persons and extra-judicial killings would not be acceptable, and inquiry would be held for violation of law by security forces.
During the hearing, the court expressed annoyance with the federal government for not registering first information reports (FIRs) against serving army officials in view of recommendations made by the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances (CIED).
Justice Jawwad observed that if the government did not implement the commission’s decisions, it should be disbanded.
It is worth mentioning that the commission has already recommended filing criminal cases against 117 serving officials of law enforcement agencies, allegedly involved in forced disappearances.
Hearing a case related to the disappearance of Navidur Rehman, the bench was informed that the commission on June 10 recommended to the Interior Ministry to register an FIR against serving army officials within two weeks. Upon this, Justice Jawwad asked a police officer of Karak district whether anyone had approached the police regarding the registration of an FIR in the matter. He replied that no one had approached them in this regard.
Likewise, on the matter of another missing person, Muhammad Jamil, the court was told that the CIED had recommended the Rawalpindi police to register cases against officials of spy agencies within two weeks.
According to the commission, there is sufficient material that Muhammad Jamil was abducted by spy agencies.

Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk

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