ISLAMABAD: After finally appearing before a two-member bench of the Supreme Court, Inspector General of Frontier Corps, Balochistan, Maj Gen Ijaz Shahid saw the contempt of court charge against him withdrawn by the court on Thursday.

The contempt notice had been issued on Dec 5 by an SC bench headed by then chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry for not complying with its earlier order of producing before Balochistan’s Crime Investigation Department DIG Imtiaz Ahmed Shah the FC personnel accused of having been involved in enforced disappearances in Balochistan.

Despite earlier court orders, the FC chief was not appearing on the excuse of being indisposed. His deputy Brigadier Khalid Saleem was representing the FC in his place.

On Thursday, the two-judge bench comprising Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk and Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan decided to discharge the contempt notice after the FC IG appeared in person.

His counsel Advocate Irfan Qadir tried to brush aside the apprehensions that the FC was behind enforced disappearances in Balochistan. He said the contempt notice was issued because of misunderstanding and assured the court that FC would continue to find out the whereabouts of missing persons.

Referring to the allegations levelled against the FC, the counsel recalled that in its order on Sept 18, the apex court had categorised the missing persons by highlighting 12 cases in which 15 FC personnel were alleged to be involved.

He said that Kaho Khan, one of the missing persons for whom fingers were pointed at six FC personnel, had been recently traced by the Quetta administration. His recovery dispelled the impression that he had been picked up by the FC, he added.

Similarly, Advocate Qadir said, three personnel had been repatriated to the army after they completed their tenure in FC Balochistan. The interior ministry has also written letters to the departments concerned for their appearance before the CID, while details to establish the involvement of the remaining personnel are sketchy and inadequate.

The counsel pleaded that the name of FC be deleted from the list of respondents in different complaints for being insufficient in evidence and the relevant law-enforcement agencies be instructed for production/ recovery of the remaining missing persons.

However, he said the FC commandants concerned had been asked to continue their efforts and extend all possible assistance to the civilian administration in tracing the missing persons. The FC will keep informing the court about the progress made in this regard.

Advocate Qadir said all possible assistance was being extended to the investigation process in terms of provision of necessary documents, production of FC officials for recording their statements and contacting all alleged individuals and government departments/functionaries for providing their present addresses/whereabouts to the interrogators.

The FC Balochistan, he said, was also cooperating with the CID in its investigation into the matter.