ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday took suo motu notice of continued terrorist attacks against the Shia Hazara community and fixed the case for hearing on May 11 at the Quetta registry of the court.

The notice was taken during the course of hearing of other cases when Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar observed that it had been pointed out by the members of the bar and also widely reported in newspapers that during the last several years, the Hazara community living in Quetta had been a target of repeated terrorist attacks.

According to a report by the National Commission for Human Rights released in March, the Hazara community suffered 509 killings in Quetta from January 2012 to December 2017.

Only last month, there were four terrorist attacks on people belonging to the Hazara community resul­ting in the death of six persons.

The court in its order stated that the right to life was the most sacred human right guaranteed by Article 9 of the Constitution but this right of the small and dwindling, peaceful and law-abiding community had been violated with impunity by miscreants.

Hearing of the case will begin on May 11 in Quetta; provincial, federal authorities asked to furnish reports in 10 days

“There has been failure by the law enforcement agencies of the State to protect the fundamental rights of this community. Such a state of affairs affects the fear and indemnity of Shia community in Pakistan and represents a matter of great public importance,” the order stated.

The chief justice issued notices to the Balochistan government through the provincial chief secretary, home secretary and inspector general of police, Frontier Cons­tabulary and federal secretaries of interior and defence asking them to file their reports within 10 days.

The federal and provincial governments will submit details of the measures taken by law enforcement agencies under their charge to ensure the security of the Hazara community and also report causes for their failure to safeguard them.

Dual nationality

The Supreme Court has been told that 197 government officials have concealed their dual nationality and 255 others have never disclosed that their spouses were dual nationals.

Moreover, two government officials have hidden the information that they are foreign nationals and 22 others have not revealed that their wives are foreign nationals.

The information was furnished before the court in a case which will be taken up by a three-judge bench headed by CJP Nisar on Thursday (today).

On suo motu notice, the matter was initiated by the apex court by calling details from the establishment secretary about dual national civil servants from grade 17 to 22 within a fortnight.

As many as 719 officials of the federal and the provincial governments have already declared their dual nationality of whom 487 work for the federal government and 232 for the provincial governments.

Similarly 734 officers have informed their departments that their wives are dual nationals.

Hussain Haqqani case

A three-bench bench headed by the chief justice appoi­nted Advocate Ahmer Bilal Soofi to assist the court in finding ways to repatriate former ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani.

Director General of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Bashir Memon told the court that he had discussed the issue of Mr Haqqani with the Americans who said Pakistan also had one of their individuals in its custody. “I even showed the Americans the red warrant against Haqqani,” the DG said.

He said he had informed the US authorities of Rs4.1 billion corruption allegations against Mr Haq­qani. “They agreed to cooperate, but the same thing had happened in the case of MQM’s Altaf Hussain,” Mr Memon recalled.

He said there were five Indians in Interpol but no Pakistani, beca­use “we belong to a poor country”.

Published in Dawn, May 3rd, 2018