April 08, 2007	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 19, 1428

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

LAHORE, April 7: Human Rights Commission of Pakistan chairperson Asma Jehangir has said the government is deceiving the people on the missing persons’ issue as it wants to perpetuate the practice.

Speaking at a press conference along with secretary-general Iqbal Haider and other office-bearers here on Saturday, she said the HRCP had in February this year filed a constitutional petition with the Supreme Court on the issue and prayed for constitution of a commission to investigate the picking up of people by the intelligence agencies so that the culprits could be identified and brought to justice, and victims compensated.

She said the HRCP provided a list of 148 missing persons with its petition. Of them, 104 were from Balochistan, 22 from Sindh and 10 each from Punjab and the NWFP. One of the missing persons was a US national and another was from Malaysia. The HRCP identified the places from where the people had been whisked away by the intelligence agencies, she said, adding that it intended to give the remaining details during probe by the proposed commission.

She said the commission not only intended to provide the details about the missing persons to the proposed commission, but also wanted to give it the list of people, including a number of women, who had been picked up by the agencies and released after keeping in detention and torture. It would like to produce some of the victims for recording evidence.

The agencies had detained and tortured a large number of people, but only a few were ready to testify. The rest were afraid to come forward as they had been threatened to be picked up again in case they spoke about it, Asma deplored.

Citing examples, she pointed out that PhD student Raza was picked up from Karachi in April 2006 and detained till August on the pretext of involvement in Nishter Park blast. He came to Lahore after being released, but was picked up again in a raid on the house where he was staying.

Jamhoori Wattan Party (Sindh) vice-president Saleem Baloch was taken into custody on Dec 16 last year and was released after being detained with 18 other people. He had been lifted again, but the government continued to deny his custody. Arifa Baloch was taken into custody from Swat and released after one and-a-half years detention in a police station in Rawalpindi.

The HRCP chief said the people were being whisked away since 2000, but the government did not bother to take action even in a single case even after provision of the list to the Supreme Court. Instead of taking the matter seriously, it said in its reply that the addresses of missing persons had not been provided in the petition.

Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Sherpao stated that he could not locate them and President Gen Pervez Musharraf said in a television interview that they had proceeded on ‘jehad’ despite the fact that a sizeable number had no links with any religious organisation, she said.

Asma said it was unbecoming of the president to justify disappearances of people on the pretext that they had gone for ‘jehad’ because it was the constitutional responsibility of the state to protect them against illegal detention. Those justifying abductions were bringing bad name to the country. The president could bargain with the ‘taliban’ and ‘burqaposh brigade’ but he could not settle disputes with the Baloch people.

She said nobody could believe that the interior ministry could not locate a missing person taken into custody by the intelligence agencies. The defence secretary had clearly stated in the Sindh High Court that the agencies were under the administrative control of the government, but it had no control over their operations.

Iqbal Haider said the constitutional petition was to come up for hearing on April 10. The apex court had directed the government to file the reply two days before the date of hearing and provide its copy to the HRCP which had not been received till date, he said.

Meanwhile, the agencies had not discontinued their practice of picking up the people. They had released 25 people since January till two weeks ago, but taken another 20 into custody.

Zahoor Ahmad Shahwani said 14 people lifted from Karachi were stuffed in three rooms, each measuring 36 square-foot. They were released after being tortured for several days and told that if they complained they would be picked up again.

Kamran of Peshawar was taken into custody after he wrote a book on his experiences during three and-a-half years detention in the Guantanamo prison. The government continued denying his custody when a habeas corpus petition was filed in the Peshawar High Court, he said. — Reporter