ISLAMABAD, March 28: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has rejected the contention of President General Pervez Musharraf that the government was not involved in the mysterious disappearances of citizens.

In a statement here on Wednesday, PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar referred to the president’s address at a public meeting in Rawalpindi and said Gen Musharraf had tried to absolve the government of any responsibility, saying that the missing persons had been commandeered by ‘Jihadi’ outfits. He also claimed to welcome the judiciary taking note of the issue of disappeared persons.

“It is unacceptable that a regime that is obsessed with establishing its writ against nationalist elements in smaller provinces should abandon its responsibility to trace citizens allegedly kidnapped by Jihadi outfits,” he said.

He said Gen Musharraf had been telling to the world that he had banned the ‘Jihadi’ outfits but to the families of the disappeared, he says he could not recover their near and dear ones because they had joined hands with these very ‘Jihadis’.

“It is this double speak that strengthens the suspicion that Musharraf has been running with the hare and hunting with the hound in the war on terror,” he added.

Mr Babar said hundreds of nationalist elements had also disappeared in the provinces of Sindh and Balochistan and asked whether they too had joined the Jihadi groups.

He said the state agencies had run amok because these were operating neither under the ambit of law nor under the control of civil and parliamentary authority. He said when the government took the position before the courts that it had no control over the operations of agencies it was an admission that they were a state within the state, he said.

Mr Babar said if General Musharraf was sincere in welcoming the courts to take up the issue, he should not interfere with the Supreme Court in taking up the 1996 case involving the use of public money by the ISI to illegally interfere in national politics. The case if allowed to proceed can result in judicial review of the legal and constitutional framework of the working of the state’s agencies, he said.

Under the international law, he said, enforced disappearances of citizens was a crime against humanity and individuals involved in it could also be tried at any time in the future. He warned the perpetrators that they could be held accountable for kidnappings anytime in future.