ISLAMABAD, Jan 8: A complainant, whose husband is still to be found, on Monday questioned the government claim before the Supreme Court that 25 of a total of 41 missing persons have been traced and freed.
A two-member bench, comprising Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan and Justice Saiyed Saeed Ashhad, is hearing a case on the application of Mrs Amina Masood Janjua regarding missing persons, including her husband.
Mrs Janjua counter-claimed that only 18 people had been freed so far while 22 were still missing.
“Authenticity of the government statement should be checked since I am in constant contact with the family whose members have yet to return,” she argued.
She also deplored that no representatives of the intelligence agencies namely the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), the Military Intelligence (MI) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB) were present in the court despite clear directions to them to attend today’s proceedings. For how long the miseries of the missing families would continue, she asked.
Deputy Attorney General Nasir Saeed Sheikh told the bench that the whereabouts of only 16 people were yet to be ascertained since Brahim Saleh had been traced and found to be a free person, while the counsel of Munir Mangal had withdrawn his petition from the Sindh High Court as the petitioner did not want to pursue the matter.
He explained that the interior ministry had issued categorical instructions to all security agencies to spare no efforts to trace the remaining missing persons. The ministry was also in constant touch with all intelligence agencies which had assured their support for tracing out the missing persons, he argued.
However, the bench expressed disappointment over government's efforts to trace the whereabouts of the missing persons by describing it unsatisfactory.
Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan directed the concerned agencies to scale up measures for early recovery of the disappeared persons and asked the complainant to submit affidavits to substantiate her claim that only 18 persons had been freed out of the total of 41.
Mrs Janjua also reiterated that the missing persons were still in the illegal custody of the military.
When the bench asked the deputy attorney general about Masood Janjua, he said all the concerned agencies had denied detaining him.
Later, talking to reporters, Mrs Janjua referred to the December 28 protest during which the relatives of the missing persons were beaten up by police and the son of Masood Janjua was stripped, and said that a case would be lodged against the two SPs from the platform of the Islamic Centre for Research Defence of Human Rights for their highhandedness.
She alleged that the intelligence agencies had also abducted Abdul Ghaffar, father of missing Abdus Sattar soon after the December 28 protest. He was released after a week, she said.
She also deplored that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz did not keep up his promise to meet the relatives of the missing persons on Eid day.
