PESHAWAR: Ninety-six people have been shifted to notified internment centres in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the last two months, a Peshawar High Court bench was told on Wednesday.

During the hearing into around 20 enforced disappearance cases, additional advocate general Waqar Ahmad Khan told Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Malik Manzoor Hussain that the government was examining particulars of the people kept at internment centres to know if anyone of those, whose cases were pending with the high court, was among them.

The chief justice observed that encouraging development had taken place in the missing person cases as instead of being dumped in drains and at deserted places, bodies were handed over to families through internment centres.

He observed that the court had collected details of the people, who had died in internment centres during the last two months, and that it would take up the issue later on.

CJ says law-enforcement agencies violating law on internees

The chief justice observed that the law-enforcement agencies had not been following the law related to internment centres as internees had been kept there for around six years without trial.

The bench expressed displeasure when relatives of some internees said they had not been allowed by the administration of different internment centres to meet their detained relatives and were asked to bring the court orders for it.

It observed that it was the right of relatives to meet an internee under the Action (in aid of civil power) Regulation and by not allowing visitation rights to them they had been violating the law.

The bench directed the chiefs of internment centres and relevant divisional commissioners to let relatives meet internees under the law.

In one case, Maazullah Barkandi, lawyer for petitioner Zameeruddin, said his client’s son, Zainul Aideen, was taken away by the law-enforcement agencies on June 7, 2012, and that he had been missing since.

AAG Waqar Ahmad said his case had been pending with the commission for missing persons.

He said his client had been searching for missing son by visiting notified internment centres.

Deputy secretary of the provincial home department Usman Zaman said when the case came to the commission, it was referred to the joint investigation team and that in light of the JIT report, the commission ordered registration of the FIR.

He said if a missing person was traced, then the case was disposed of.

The bench asked the secretary about the progress of oversight boards in enforced disappearance cases.

Usman replied he would produce reports of oversight boards related to different internment centres after Sept 8.

He said the boards had held several meetings and that details would be shared with the court.

One of the detainees, Mohammad Saleem, appeared before the bench and said he was picked up from Mathani area in Peshawar around 16 months ago by the law-enforcement agencies and a few days ago, he was set free.

He said he did not want to pursue his case.

Lawyer for another detainee, Rehmat Khan, said he had also returned back and the case might be disposed of.

In another case, woman Gulfam Bibi informed the bench that her husband was taken into custody by the Frontier Corps.

She said the prayer leader of a mosque located near Diljan Plaza in Peshawar Sadder area had handed her husband over to the FC a few months ago after which he had been missing. The woman said her house was also damaged due to thunderstorm and floods and that she had no money to make both ends meet.

The bench directed the AAG to ensure provision of financial assistance to the woman from the Zakat Fund.

It also issued separate notices to the defence and interior ministries and provincial home department in the case asking them to inform it if there’s any progress in the cases.

In other cases, the bench issued similar observations.

Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2014