ISLAMABAD: The family of a missing person has decided to move the Supreme Court of Pakistan after his body was handed over to his heirs a few weeks ago.

Hafiz Mohammad Jamil, a plumber by profession, disappeared from outside his house in Rawalpindi on January 18, 2011.

According to Jamil’s younger sister, her 29-year-old brother was picked up by intelligence officials when he was leaving home for work at about 8am.

She said that initially the police were reluctant to lodge an FIR against the disappearance of his brother, the only bread earner of their family.

Jamil was found in the custody of spy agencies after the matter was reported to the Supreme Court, and some of his family members were later allowed to meet him.

She said their family would request the apex court to order action against the responsible people for the custodial killing of his brother.

Body of Hafiz Jamil was handed over to his heirs at CMH in June

The Supreme Court on February 20, 2014, had directed the spy agencies that “the relatives of Mohammad Jamil shall be allowed to meet him in accordance with the said procedure within a week.”

On March 31, his relatives filed an application with the apex court alleging that “in complete disregard to the court orders, the concerned authorities did not comply with the above mentioned order till March 23”.

According to the application, on March 23, the spy agencies arranged a meeting of the missing person with his family members.

“As feared, he was found in a precarious condition, looked near death and could hardly speak. He was not allowed to tell what happened to him…the family wanted to examine his entire body but the attendant-cum-security person did not allow.”

It requested the court to direct the spy agencies to release Jamil and provide him immediate medical treatment.

The application filed on March 31 was yet to be fixed for hearing when the body of Jamil was handed over to his relatives in the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) Rawalpindi on June 15.

It may be mentioned that in February this year, Defence Secretary Lt-Gen (retired) Asif Yasin Malik had told a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Justice Nasirul Mulk, that he held a four-hour meeting with officers concerned of military and intelligence agencies about the missing persons issue.

He informed the bench that he had warned them of “severe consequences” of enforced disappearances and that action would be taken against them in this regard.

Earlier, after verifying evidence in the presence of ISI, MI and other officials in the Hafiz Jamil case, the inquiry commission probing the ‘missing persons’ cases on November 11, 2013, concluded that prima facie it was a case of enforced disappearance.

The commission had also directed the interior ministry to register a case against officials who are involved in the enforced disappearance of Jamil.

But the interior ministry refused to take action against army officials, believing that military men can only be dealt with under the Army Act 1952.

Published in Dawn, Aug 2nd , 2014