ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has suggested setting up of a fund for assisting the needy whose near and dear ones have gone missing and they appear in courts regularly to pursue their cases.

Realising the ordeals being faced by such families, a three-judge Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja floated on Thursday the idea of creating the fund in a way of an endowment which should be kept with the office of the attorney general of Pakistan.

When needed, the court said, the fund should be used for subsistence of those who could not afford boarding and lodging in Islamabad.

The suggestion came during the proceedings of a missing person’s case instituted on the application of Saadia Bibi whose husband Khawar Mehmood went missing from Fort Abbas in Bahawalnagar.

Ms Saadia, 21, pleaded that her husband was picked up by security personnel on June 26 last year, six or seven months after their marriage.

Since then she is running from pillar to post to find the whereabouts of her spouse. The case is being pleaded by Amina Masood Janjua of the Defence of Human Rights who is running a campaign for the recovery of victims of enforced disappearances, including her husband Masood Janjua.