ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court adjourned the hearing of a case about a missing man, Yasin Shah, to Thursday after the attorney general informed it that the federal government would register an FIR in the 35 missing persons’ case.
Expressing disappointment over the perceived foot dragging by the government, the Supreme Court had on Tuesday given it another opportunity to comply with the court’s previous orders in the case and warned that it would summon the prime minister and the governor and chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for explanation under contempt rules.
“I regretted that the FIR should have been lodged much earlier by the KP government, but since it has not done so, the federal government will do that,” Attorney General Salman Aslam Butt assured a three-judge bench headed by Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja on Wednesday.
It should have been done by now, but because of the presence of dignitaries in the capital the FIR would be registered in an hour or so and submitted to the court for its perusal, he said.
“This is a significant development,” Justice Khawaja said. He observed that only the Constitution and law would prevail in the country. “Whatever the court has said in its orders” was the answer when Dawn asked the attorney general against whom the FIR would be registered.
In its Dec 10, 2013 verdict, the Supreme Court headed by then chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had ordered the prime minister as well as the KP governor and chief minister to ensure recovery of the missing persons in seven days and take action against those responsible for detaining them. The order held that the army authorities under Pata regulations had removed 35 internees from the Lakki Marwat internment centre.
Twelve of them were later produced before the court.
The defence ministry has already moved a petition seeking review of the Dec 10 verdict. The ministry pleaded that holding the army responsible for enforced disappearances would demoralise the troops engaged in combating terrorism in Swat and Malakand.
The stand taken by the government in the court on Wednesday drew mixed reaction from the legal community.
Advocate retired Col Inamur Raheem, who always pursues missing persons’ cases, said the AG’s statement about registration of an FIR against the people responsible for enforced disappearances had given a new hope to the families of missing persons.
“It was a sensible step taken by the government which would definitely bring rule of law in the country,” he said, adding that the people maligning the entire force should be taken to task. It has now become the duty of KP police to investigate the matter and present a challan in the court of law.
Advocate Raja Mohammad Irshad, who has represented intelligence agencies in various cases, said he had not yet seen contents of the FIR, but the stand taken by the government would highly demoralise the forces fighting militants and sacrificing their lives. “Our forces are being slaughtered by militants, but instead of encouraging them and realising their sacrifices such a stand is being taken,” he regretted.
At the outset of the hearing on Wednesday, the Supreme Court declined to hear Additional Defence Secretary retired Maj Gen Raja Arif Nazir.
The attorney general tried to explain the government position and that a one-man commission had been constituted to look into the matter, but the court called Muhabbat Shah, brother of Yasin Shah, to the rostrum and asked the attorney general to look straight into the eyes of the complainant and feel the pain and agony he was undergoing.
