PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court was informed on Tuesday that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had directed the chiefs of all internment centres in the province not to hand over bodies of internees, who died on their respective premises, to relatives without autopsy.

During the hearing into several enforced disappearances cases, additional advocate general Waqar Ahmad Khan told a bench comprising Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Malik Manzoor Hussain that in light of the court directives, the provincial home secretary had asked the relevant divisional commissioners to produce reports compiled by oversight boards for internment centres about internees by Oct 28.

He said the home secretary had also directed the chiefs of internment centres to ensure provision of health facilities to internees and allow relatives to meet them.

The additional advocate general said on the high court’s directives, the secretary had convened a meeting on Oct 18, where divisional commissioners and other relevant officials were in attendance.

PHC orders production of oversight boards’ reports on internees

He produced minutes of the said meeting and said in the meeting, it was decided that the oversight boards formed under the Action (in aid of civil power) Regulation for PATA 2011 would submit their reports to the high court until Oct 28.

The AAG said the meeting also decided to categorise internees in different centres and those against whom there was no evidence and were believed to be innocent would be freed.

The bench expressed satisfaction with the government steps and ordered implementation of the meeting’s decisions.

Recently, the high court expressed displeasure in different cases at several issues attached with internment centre.

The court had expressed reservations about the handing over of bodies of internees to relatives without postmortem, non-production of the oversight boards’ reports, denial of meeting to relatives of internees etc.

When the bench began proceedings on Tuesday, petitioner Ahmad Shah said his brother, Hazrat Bilal, was a Frontier Corp sepoy and was taken hostage by militants along with his 22 colleagues on June 30, 2010.

He added that around 300 militants had attacked their checkpost in Shongari area of Mohmand Agency.

The petitioner said they had received a video in which kidnapped persons were shown injured.

He complained the government hadn’t taken any step for the release of abductees.

The petitioner requested the bench to issue directives to the government to take steps for their release.

The bench ordered the defence and interior ministries to file separate replies to the petition within a fortnight.

COMMENTS SOUGHT: The bench sought comments from the Commandant of Mohmand Rifles on the petition of Pashmeena Bibi against the detention of son Attaullah.

The petitioner, who belonged to Gulbela area, claimed her son was taken into custody by security forces on Feb 23, 2014.

She claimed they came to know that he was interned at an internment centre in Ghalanai area of Mohmand Agency.

The petitioner claimed that her son was a teacher and now he had to appear in examination of PTC (primary teacher certificate).

She requested the bench to issue directives so that her son should be permitted to appear in the said examination.

In another petition against detention of Ali Rehman and his son, Sajjad Ali, the bench asked the provincial government to file reply.

The petition is filed by Mohammad Rehman, a relative of the two detainees.

The petitioner alleged that both detainees were taken into custody by the law-enforcement agencies and they came to know that Ali Rehman was kept at Lakki Marwat internment centre, while his son was kept at Pak-Austrian Institute for Tourism and Hotel Management internment centre in Swat.

He said the two detainees were innocent and were not involved in any criminal activity.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2014