ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday served a contempt of court notice to the inspector general of the Frontier Corps (FC) for not complying with its order in a case relating to the 'missing persons' of Balochistan.

This is the first time that a serving general has been issued a contempt of court notice. The court had previously warned IG FC Maj-Gen Ijaz Shahid that he may face contempt charges if he fails to appear before it on Dec 5.

During proceedings today, Attorney General Irfan Qadir appeared in court as counsel for Maj-Gen Shahid. However, the court said that the IG FC would not be given any leverage as long as he refuses to appear in court himself.

Heading the three-judge bench, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry said that the IG FC should physically appear in court and explain his reasons for not obeying the orders of the court.

The chief justice directed the secretary interior to issue a notice to Maj-Gen Shahid and ensure his presence in court.

In a parrallel case relating to disappearance of one Yasin Shah and similar enforced disappearances, the federal government was yet again unable to present the remaining missing persons. Defence Minister Khwaja Asif pleaded the three-judge bench of the apex court for further time to produce the victims. However, the court rejected the plea.

The Supreme Court had given the government a final deadline of Thursday to produce the 33 missing persons.

The chief justice remarked that the court should summon somebody else if the defence minister was helpless.

Asif told the bench that the whereabouts of five to seven missings persons had been ascertained, but he was unable to reveal that information in public and requested an in-camera hearing.

Responding to the request, the chief justice asked the defence minister to first produce the 30 missing persons and then an in-camera briefing would be held in the judge’s chamber.